Society Records and the Share Certificate: What Every Member Must Keep

Your share certificate is the document that proves you are a member of your co-operative housing society — not the sale agreement, and not the keys to your flat. It is issued by the society under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies (MCS) Act, 1960 and the Model Bye-Laws, 2014, and it records the shares allotted to you and links your name to a specific flat. Alongside it, a small set of society records — the register of members, the property card, the conveyance deed, the approved building plans and the audited accounts — decides how smoothly your building can move into redevelopment. This guide explains what each document is in plain language, why it matters, how to get a duplicate share certificate if yours is lost, and how Maharashtra is shifting these records online.

What the share certificate is — and why it matters more than your flat keys

A "co-operative housing society" is a legal body that owns the land and the building. As a member, you hold shares in that body, and those shares give you the right to occupy one specific flat. The share certificate is the printed proof of those shares. In law it is treated as prima facie evidence of your membership — meaning it is accepted as proof unless someone can clearly show otherwise.

A proper share certificate carries your name, your flat number, the number of shares allotted to you, and the distinctive share numbers. It is signed by the office-bearers — normally the chairman, the secretary and one committee member — and stamped with the society's common seal. It should be issued to you within the time the Model Bye-Laws, 2014 prescribe after you become a member. If you have bought a flat but never received a share certificate in your own name, that is a gap you should close immediately, because it is the first document any developer, bank or buyer will ask to see.

Why the share certificate matters for redevelopment

Only members can vote at the Special General Body Meeting (SGBM) where a society decides to redevelop and picks a developer. Under the Section 79A redevelopment directive dated 4 July 2019, the meeting that appoints a developer needs approval of not less than 51% of the total membership, the meeting is video-recorded, and an authorised officer of the Registrar attends. If your name and your membership are not clean in the society's records, your vote — and your claim to a new flat and to the additional area a redevelopment offers — can be questioned later.

This is why the share certificate and the register of members must agree with each other. A mismatch (an old owner's name still on record, a transfer that was never completed, or a certificate issued to only one joint holder) is exactly the kind of thing that stalls a project or triggers a dispute. Before you compare developer offers on the offer comparison tool or commission a feasibility report, it is worth confirming your own membership record is in order.

How to get a duplicate share certificate through your society

If your share certificate is lost, damaged or destroyed, you do not go to a government office — you apply to your own society's managing committee. The society issues a fresh certificate marked "Duplicate". The usual route is:

1. Report the loss. Give the society a written application explaining how the certificate was lost, damaged or destroyed. For a lost certificate, many societies ask for a police complaint or a lost-article report.
2. Submit an indemnity bond. An "indemnity bond" is a signed promise that you will cover the society against any loss if the original certificate turns up in someone else's hands. It is usually on stamp paper.
3. Pay the prescribed fee. The society charges a small fee for issuing a duplicate, as fixed in its bye-laws or by a general body decision.
4. Committee resolution. The managing committee passes a formal resolution approving the duplicate. Some societies also put up a notice on the board or invite objections before issuing it.
5. Collect the duplicate. The new certificate is signed, sealed and clearly marked "Duplicate", and the fact that a duplicate was issued is noted in the society's records.

If the society unreasonably refuses to issue your certificate or its duplicate, that is a dispute you can raise with the Registrar, and ultimately under Section 91 of the MCS Act, 1960 before the Co-operative Court, which is the forum meant for disputes between a member and the society.

The essential society records — a checklist

Below is the core set of records every member should be able to see, and every managing committee should keep safely. Keep your own certified copies too — do not rely only on the society's file. A fuller version sits in our redevelopment document checklists.

Conveyance and the property card — the land question

Two records above deal with the same question: whose name is the land in? The "property card" is the government land record maintained by the City Survey Office; it names the legal holder of the plot. The "conveyance deed" is the document by which the builder formally transfers the land and building to your society. Under the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act (MOFA), 1963, Section 11 places a duty on the promoter (builder) to convey title to the society. Where the builder does not do this, Section 11(3) allows the society to obtain a "deemed conveyance" — a legal shortcut in which the Competent Authority (the District Deputy Registrar) can execute the conveyance in the builder's place.

These documents create rights in immovable property, so they must be registered — Section 17 of the Registration Act, 1908 makes registration of such documents compulsory. Until conveyance is done, the property card will not show the society as the holder, and that gap can complicate a redevelopment agreement and the way FSI benefits are claimed. Our conveyance and deemed conveyance guide walks through the full process step by step.

If your building is not a co-operative society but is held under the Maharashtra Apartment Ownership Act, 1970 through a registered Deed of Declaration — where each owner holds their apartment plus an undivided share in the common areas — the underlying idea is the same: you must be able to prove your ownership and your share of the common property from the recorded documents.

Approved plans, accounts and audit

The approved building plans, the Intimation of Disapproval (IOD) and the Commencement Certificate (CC) are the sanctioned record of what was legally built. They matter because the existing authorised area is one input into working out the potential of a redevelopment. Exact development potential is always plot-specific — it depends on your plot area, the road width and the applicable regulations — so use the FSI calculator and the additional area calculator for figures rather than relying on any single universal number.

The audited accounts and the annual audit report — a statutory requirement under the MCS Act framework — show the society's real financial position: its repair and sinking funds, its dues, and any liabilities. A developer, a lender and the members themselves all read these before a project starts. Keeping them filed and up to date is part of being redevelopment-ready.

Moving records online — the state co-operation portal

Maharashtra's co-operation department has been shifting society registration and record-keeping onto an online portal, so that key details are held digitally rather than only in physical registers. This makes it easier to verify a society's status, file returns and reduce the risk of lost or tampered records. If your society is registering afresh, or updating its details, our guide to online society registration explains how the portal works, and you can begin the process through register your society.

Online records do not replace your paper originals — they sit alongside them. The safest position for a member is to hold certified physical copies and clear digital scans of every document in the checklist, and to make sure the society's online record matches them.