Oilfields CHS

Thakur College of Management Studies

Samata Nagar

society secretary Zahid Alam

Bimla and Badrinath Pandey, the boy's landlord, fought the society officebeaers to ensure he remained there

18-yr-old student thrown out; Kandivali soc ignores deputy registrar's order against 'no bachelor' rule.Bimla Pandey, a 66-year-old Pune resident, was on her way home from Mumbai after handing over the keys of her flat in Thakur Village, Kandivali East, to her new tenant -- an 18-year-old boy from Nashik -- who had secured admission in a college right opposite the apartment. Around 10 pm when she was about to reach Pune, she received a call from the boy saying the society wasn’t allowing him on the premises citing its internal rule to not allow unmarried people as tenants. By the time Pandey returned to Kandivali, it was past 4 am and the boy had spent the night at the house of the broker who had helped him find the apartment.Ironically, the chairman of the society –– is the principal of the same college where the boy has taken admission.This incident occurred on August 12. Pandey, who was joined in Mumbai by her husband Badrinath, stayed put in the house for a week to ensure the boy, and two other students who subsequently moved in as tenants to share the apartment with him, didn’t face further trouble.The society chairman, Chaitali Chakraborty, provided Mumbai Mirror with a video recording of the August 12 incident, in which she and the society’s secretary are seen raising questions about the loopholes in the lease agreement. Chakraborty said that the agreement was registered in the name of the boy’s mother, and that he was finally allowed to stay in the apartment that night. She also said that the society had a long-standing dispute with Pandey regarding the bachelors-only rule which was referred to the deputy registrar of the cooperative societies, and it was conveyed to her that she cannot lease her properties in the society till the matter was decided.Bimla and Badrinath Pandey own flat nos 302 and 401 in A-Wing of Oilfields CHS, a stone’s throw away from. From the time they got possession of the 2BHK flats in 2004, they have been renting them out to students. Last December, the society decided that singles will not be allowed to rent apartments, and put up a board at the entry saying: “No PG/Bachelors accommodation allowed.” The managing committee further said that flat owners must obtain a no-objection certificate from the society to sell or rent their properties. The Pandeys challenged the managing committee’s decision citing the cooperative society by-laws 43(A) and (B) which state that renting of flats was the “sole discretion of the flat owners, and that flats can be rented to any individual of the property owners’ choice as long as the society is given a copy of the registered leave and licence agreement and police verification certificate”.Pandey said that she wrote to thepolice and the deputy registrar of cooperative societies after the society watchman stopped entry of her tenants and property brokers. “During a hearing on August 8, which was attended by the society’s chairman and the secretary, the deputy registrar informed them that no bachelors rule had to go, and we were told to lease the apartments as per our choice. We were told that a formal order to this effect will be issued after August 15,” Pandey said.Deputy Registrar Sunil Kothawale, in an order issued on August 19, directed the society to allow the Pandeys to rent out their flats as per their wishes so long as provisions of cooperative society by-laws 43(A) and (B) were followed, which the Pandeys said were never violated in the first place.Pandey said the society chairman’s claim that the boy was eventually allowed to stay in the flat on August 12 was “not true”. “The society officials did not allow him to stay in the flat that night. My husband, who was in Patna, had to rush to Mumbai and I returned from Pune. We remained in Mumbai till August 19 to ensure our tenants were not harassed.”Chakraborty, andsaid that there was a problem with the documentation every time Pandeys rented out their apartments. “They had earlier rented out one of their flats to four girls and we found that instead of the four original tenants, six new girls were living there. The Pandeys didn’t submit proper KYC, and notarised agreements. The girls’ friends would come over, sometimes drunk, and create nuisance late in the night,” Chakraborty alleged.Alam, who teaches at the same college where Chakraborty is the principal, said that out of 56 flats in the society, 21 are occupied by tenants, but “only Pandeys insist on having bachelors as tenants”.“We can’t keep an eye on what single boys and girls do all the time. With families, there is no such problem. Why does Mrs Pandey have a problem with renting the flat to families?” Alam asked.Pandey met with Deputy Commissioner of Police DS Swami, who assured of her tenants’ safety. Swami told Mirror that he had instructed the Samata Nagar police to have a meeting with the society office-bearers and the Pandeys to arrive at an amicable settlement. “Despite this if anyone is obstructed by the society, we will take appropriate action,” he said.