The Section 79A Redevelopment Process, Step by Step

The Section 79A redevelopment process is the official, state-mandated procedure a co-operative housing society in Maharashtra must follow when it decides to demolish its old building and rebuild it through a developer. A co-operative housing society is the registered body of flat-owners that legally holds the building and land on behalf of its members. The process takes its name from Section 79A of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies (MCS) Act, 1960, which lets the State Government issue binding directions to societies, and it is spelled out in full by the Government's redevelopment directive dated 4 July 2019 (No. SGY-2018-PK 85-14-S). Follow it correctly and your redevelopment stands on firm legal ground; skip a step and the entire project can be challenged and frozen for years.

What Section 79A actually is

Section 79A of the MCS Act, 1960 gives the Government of Maharashtra the power to issue binding directions that every co-operative society must obey. Redevelopment involves crores of rupees and members' only homes, so the Government has used this power to lay down a fixed, transparent procedure that stops a small group of committee members from quietly handing the building to a favoured builder. The current rulebook is the directive dated 4 July 2019, issued by the Co-operation, Marketing & Textiles Department, which superseded the earlier directive of 3 January 2009 and tightened almost every safeguard.

Think of the 4 July 2019 directive as a checklist the Registrar can hold your managing committee to. It fixes who can start the process, how many members must agree, who may (and may not) be your developer, how that developer is chosen, what security the society must hold, and how long construction may take. Every threshold quoted below comes from that directive. If a dispute later arises about how the society was run, it is decided as a co-operative dispute under Section 91 of the MCS Act, before the Co-operative Court — another reason to keep every step by the book.

Quorum, requisition and the 51% rule

Three numbers decide whether your society can lawfully move forward. First, the process can only be started once a requisition — a formal written demand — is signed by not less than one-fifth (1/5th, i.e. 20%) of the total members. Second, the Special General Body Meeting (SGBM) — a members' meeting called specially for redevelopment — is valid only if the quorum (the minimum attendance needed for decisions to count) is two-thirds (2/3rd) of the total membership. Third, and most important, appointing a developer needs the approval of not less than 51% of the society's total membership strength.

The Section 79A process, step by step

The directive turns redevelopment into an orderly sequence. Each stage builds on the one before, and the paperwork from each stage is what protects members if anything goes wrong later.

1. Confirm title and conveyance first. Under the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act (MOFA), 1963, the builder of your original building was obliged under Section 11 to convey (legally transfer) the land and building to the society. If that never happened, apply for deemed conveyance under Section 11(3) of MOFA — the society applies to the Competent Authority (the designated District Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies), who can register the conveyance without the old builder's signature. You should own your land before you rebuild it. See our conveyance guide.
2. Collect the requisition. At least one-fifth (20%) of members sign a written requisition asking the committee to convene a meeting to consider redevelopment. This is the formal trigger the directive requires.
3. Hold a preliminary general body meeting and appoint a Project Management Consultant (PMC). A PMC is an independent professional (usually an architect-led firm) who guides the society through feasibility, tenders and construction supervision. Appointing one keeps members from negotiating with builders directly. A professional feasibility report helps here.
4. Get a structural audit and feasibility study. The PMC assesses the building's condition and works out how much you can build. Because permissible floor space depends entirely on your plot's size and road width, use the site's FSI calculator to estimate your buildable area rather than trusting a builder's verbal figure.
5. Prepare a transparent tender. The PMC drafts a common tender document so every developer bids on the same terms — carpet area, corpus, rent and timelines. Have it checked through our tender review service, and download ready formats from our downloads library.
6. Invite and compare developer offers. Circulate the tender widely and collect sealed offers. Under the directive, any shortlisted developer must have at least one MahaRERA-registered project to its name. Put the bids side by side with our offer comparison tool so members compare like with like, not marketing brochures.
7. Hold the video-recorded developer-selection SGBM. This is the heart of the process. The special meeting where the developer is chosen must be video-recorded, and a Registrar's authorised officer attends to see that voting is fair. Quorum for this meeting is two-thirds of total membership.
8. Pass the appointment resolution. The developer is appointed only if not less than 51% of the total membership approves. Crucially, no committee member, office-bearer, or their relative may be the developer — this bars self-dealing. Read our guide on how to choose a developer.
9. Sign and register the agreements, and take the bank guarantee. The Development Agreement (DA) between society and developer, and each member's Permanent Alternate Accommodation Agreement (PAAA) — the individual contract fixing your new flat, rent and corpus — must both be registered. Registration is compulsory under Section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908. The society must also hold a bank guarantee equal to 20% of the project value as security. Watch for the traps in our red flags in the development agreement guide.
10. Vacate and start construction. Members shift out once transit rent and corpus arrangements are in place. Keep everything documented — see transit and construction.
11. Track completion and take possession. The directive requires the project to be completed within 2 years of the plinth commencement certificate (CC), extendable to 3 years only in exceptional cases. Manage handover and corpus using possession and corpus.

Thresholds at a glance

Every figure below is fixed by the 4 July 2019 directive under Section 79A of the MCS Act, 1960.

An indicative timeline

Only the completion period is a fixed legal deadline; the durations below are realistic planning estimates to help your committee schedule the work, not statutory limits.

Cluster and federation redevelopment

When several adjoining societies redevelop together — a cluster or federation scheme, which can unlock better planning and incentive area — the directive raises the bar. Each participating society must still meet the 2/3rd quorum plus 51% approval internally, and in addition not less than 60% of all affiliated members across the combined scheme must agree. This double lock protects smaller societies inside a big cluster from being outvoted. Because the extra buildable area in such schemes depends on the plot and road layout, estimate it with the additional area calculator before committing.

The safeguards that protect members

Read together, the directive's rules form a chain of protection. The MahaRERA-project requirement filters out fly-by-night builders; MahaRERA has even held that a redeveloping society can itself act as a promoter or co-promoter, so the law's protections travel with the project. The 20% bank guarantee gives the society money to fall back on if the developer defaults. Registration of the DA and PAAA under Section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908 makes the promises enforceable in court rather than mere verbal assurances. And the video recording plus the Registrar's officer make the crucial selection vote almost impossible to rig.

What this means for your society

The practical lesson of the 4 July 2019 directive is that redevelopment is a members' decision, run in the open, at every stage. A committee cannot lawfully shortcut the requisition, hold a thinly attended meeting, or pick a builder in a back room. For ordinary members, the directive is your best friend: it entitles you to a video-recorded selection meeting, a MahaRERA-eligible developer, a 20% security cushion, and registered contracts. Keep copies of every resolution, the video, the registered DA and your own PAAA in a safe place — they are your proof if the project is ever delayed or disputed. Societies still weighing whether to appoint a builder or rebuild on their own should also read self-redevelopment vs builder and the wider RERA for redevelopment position before the first meeting.