Second Deemed Conveyance Application Held Maintainable

The Bombay High Court considered a challenge to a deemed conveyance order passed in favour of Apeksha Co-operative Housing Society Ltd. under Section 11 of the Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act, 1963.

The promoter, B.K. Corporation, objected to the maintainability of a second application. The society had earlier filed an identical application, which the Competent Authority rejected by order dated 4 August 2016 because a civil suit filed by Noble House CHSL concerning conveyance from the same layout was pending. That earlier order was not challenged.

The dispute arose from a single layout at Sundarvan Complex, Lokhandwala Road, Andheri (West), Mumbai, where four buildings had been constructed and four co-operative housing societies formed, namely Apeksha, Noble House, Valencia and Camron Heights. The layout was divided by a Development Plan road, and the record also referred to earlier Urban Land Ceiling exemption orders and municipal approvals.

The principal issue before Justice Farhan P. Dubash was whether Apeksha CHSL could file a fresh deemed conveyance application after the earlier rejection, and whether the Competent Authority could grant conveyance while the civil suit remained pending.

The Court recorded that the earlier rejection had expressly granted liberty to Apeksha CHSL to file a fresh application after the decision of the civil suit. Since that suit was still pending, the Court examined the effect of the second application and the impugned order dated 31 May 2017.

In the operative directions, the Court disposed of the writ petition while keeping the rights and contentions of the parties in the pending Suit No. 1481 of 2012 expressly open. The City Civil Court was requested to hear and decide the suit uninfluenced by the High Court’s order, preferably within one year.

The Court also recorded that Apeksha CHSL would be at liberty to challenge the earlier order dated 4 August 2016, and any such challenge would be decided on its own merits. After pronouncement, the Court granted a four-week stay of the judgment, continuing interim protection till 7 July 2026.

Practical takeaway: In a multi-building layout dispute, a fresh deemed conveyance application may be tested against the terms of an earlier rejection and the status of pending civil proceedings.