Member can be thrown out for owning more than one property - SC

Cooperative housing societies can expel a member for owning more than one property as acquiring concessional government land cannot be a ruse to accumulate wealth, the Supreme Court has ruled.

"Experience has shown that voluntary organisations like cooperative societies are the best system which can suit the needs of poor and weaker sections," a Bench of justices Mukundakam Sharma and A R Dave in their judgement.
The object of a cooperative society is not to earn profits but to enable the members to improve their economic conditions by helping them in their pursuits, the court said.
"Thus, the cooperative societies like the present one which seek to obtain the land at concessional rate from the government and to build houses must necessarily have a limitation in that only members who are in real need of houses should be permitted to become members and to take the benefit of land allotment," Justice Sharma writing the judgement observed.