Legal Updates · Government Resolution
Maharashtra GR Cuts Time and Paperwork for Society Registration, Bye-law Amendments and Deemed Conveyance
A Cooperation Department GR of 23 October 2026 re-engineers six services: deemed conveyance in four months instead of six, society registration and bye-law amendments in 30 days, far fewer documents, and digitally signed certificates. The new online system is still being built.
By Adv. Omkar M. Sapre ·
Document Government Resolution No. बैठक-1125/प्र.क्र.285 (भाग-1)/18-स
Department Cooperation Department, Government of Maharashtra
Dated 23 October 2026
GR code 202610231553252447
In brief
The State has approved a simplified procedure, under its Governance Process Re-engineering (GPR) programme, for six services of the Cooperation Department. For housing societies the headline changes are a four-month time limit for deemed conveyance (down from six), a 30-day time limit for registering a society or amending its bye-laws (down from 60), fewer documents and approval stages, and certificates, orders and registrations issued online with a digital signature and a QR code. The services will move to the new process once MahaIT completes the online system on the Aaple Sarkar and MAITRI portals. The GR does not give a date.
The six services covered
- Registration of a co-operative society, including reservation of its name
- Amendment of a society’s bye-laws
- Deemed conveyance for co-operative housing societies
- New money-lending licence
- Renewal of a money-lending licence
- Crushing licence for sugar factories
The first three are citizen services and will be delivered on the Aaple Sarkar portal. The last three are treated as business services and will be delivered on the MAITRI portal.
What has changed
| Service | Time limit | Documents | Approval stages |
|---|---|---|---|
| Society registration (with name reservation) | 60 days → 30 days | 14–34 → 9–16 (by society type) | Up to 4 levels → 2 |
| Bye-law amendment | 60 days → 30 days | 12 → 9 | Up to 4 levels → 2 |
| Deemed conveyance | 180 days → 120 days | 24 → 10–13 | 4 → 2 |
| New money-lending licence | 60 days → 30 days | 22 → 8 | 6 → 3 |
| Money-lending licence renewal | 60 days → 30 days | 21 → 7 | 6 → 3 |
| Sugar factory crushing licence | None fixed → 30 days | 21 → 7 | 4 → 3 |
Source: Annexure A to the GR. For society registration, the 30 days covers name reservation and registration together, but the time the chief promoter takes between receiving the name-reservation and bank-account letter and filing the registration proposal is not counted.
What it means for housing societies
Deemed conveyance
- Four-month time limit instead of six.
- Two desks instead of four. Office staff at the District Deputy Registrar’s office (or the Joint Registrar, CIDCO) scrutinise the application, check the fee, prepare notices to the opponents and a draft order. The District Deputy Registrar or Joint Registrar (CIDCO), as competent authority under Section 5A of MOFA, then issues hearing notices to both sides, hears the matter, passes a reasoned order under Section 11(3) and issues the certificate under Section 11(4), both digitally signed.
- Six documents become optional: the gunthewari map or regularisation certificate, the representative’s photo ID, the measurement (mojani) map, the title search report, the non-agricultural (NA) order and proof of federation registration. Thirteen core documents remain, including the society’s registration certificate, the authorising resolution, a recent property card or 7/12 extract, the list of flat purchasers, the legal notice to the promoter, the commencement certificate, the approved plan, the architect’s certificate, and one member’s agreement with Index-II.
- No Occupation Certificate? The society can instead give a self-certificate (in the format at Appendix 5) that it has taken possession, accepts the responsibilities for the building, and will apply to the local body for an OC after conveyance.
- The online form covers a single society, several societies applying together, a federation, and apartment owners. Properties in CIDCO and NAINA areas are routed separately. An advocate can file with a vakalatnama. The applicant downloads an auto-filled Form 7, signs and stamps it, and uploads it, and gives the opponents’ email addresses for service of notices.
Registering a new society
- Name reservation and registration are now one service with a single 30-day time limit.
- For a tenant co-partnership housing society or premises society, documents fall from 34 to 16 (7 at the name-reservation and bank-account stage, 9 at registration). For a plot-type tenant ownership housing society, from 32 to 16 (8 and 8).
- The chief promoter and promoter members are identified through Maha-ID, and their details are filled in from it. The system will not accept a promoter under 18.
- The registration certificate, memorandum and notification are issued online with a digital signature and a QR code, and the society’s entry is made in a digital register.
Amending bye-laws
- 30-day time limit and two desks.
- The chairman and the secretary must each give consent by Maha-ID OTP before the application can be submitted.
- The form records the general body meeting details, works out the two-thirds majority of members present, and records the votes in favour and the resolution number.
- A society can opt to adopt the revised model bye-laws in full. The appendices are renumbered: old Appendices II and III are combined as Appendix I, and old Appendix IV becomes Appendix II. The approving authority digitally signs the amendment memorandum and Appendix II, or passes a reasoned order of rejection.
- Model bye-laws for housing societies and credit societies will be made available on the portal.
Changes across all six services
- Information already held in government systems (the National Cooperative Database, AgriStack, DigiLocker and land records) is to be fetched automatically instead of being asked from the applicant.
- Self-declarations will be accepted only through Aadhaar-enabled OTP e-consent.
- Certificates, licences, orders, notifications and memoranda will be issued online, digitally signed, with a QR code to verify them.
- Every co-operative society will have a digital register linking its registration, bye-law amendments, audits, elections and annual returns to its registration number.
- Licensed moneylenders must display their interest rate prominently at their place of business. Borrower details and inspection records will be kept on a common portal, and complaints will be linked to the moneylender’s licence history.
- Prior approval for expanding the area of operation of urban and rural non-agricultural credit societies will be an online service.
- Sugar factories must apply for crushing licences between 1 August and 30 September.
- Earlier GRs, notifications, circulars and office orders inconsistent with this GR are superseded.
When does it start?
Not yet. The GR says the services will be delivered on Aaple Sarkar and MAITRI once MahaIT completes development of the revised online system. No date is given. The Commissioner for Co-operation and the Sugar Commissioner are to issue guidelines to field offices. Until then, check with the registrar’s office how applications are being received.
Advocate’s view · Adv. Omkar M. Sapre
What this means in practice
What follows is my view, as an advocate practising before co-operative authorities in Maharashtra. It is not part of the GR.
For housing societies, the most useful change is in deemed conveyance. Making the title search report and the NA order optional removes two of the costliest and slowest documents to obtain, and the Occupation Certificate self-certificate keeps societies without an OC in the process. A four-month limit is a real improvement, but contested applications will still need notices, hearings and a reasoned order, and the developer or landowner can still challenge that order. Societies should plan for the time a defended matter actually takes.
The GR is an administrative instrument. In my view it changes the procedure and the documents required, not the substantive conditions under the MCS Act, 1960 or MOFA, 1963. A society that is not entitled to conveyance under the law does not become entitled because the form is simpler.
These are notified services under the Maharashtra Right to Public Services Act, 2015. In my view, once the revised time limits apply, an unexplained delay beyond them can be taken up in appeal under that Act.
What societies can do now
- Get Maha-ID and Aadhaar-linked mobiles in order for the chairman, secretary and, for new societies, the chief promoter and promoters. OTP consent is mandatory.
- Digitise the core papers: registration certificate, resolutions, property card or 7/12 extract, approved plans, commencement certificate, OC (if any) and flat purchasers’ agreements with Index-II.
- For deemed conveyance, put the general body resolution in place and serve the legal notice on the promoter, so the application is ready when the portal goes live.
- For bye-law amendments, decide whether to adopt the revised model bye-laws in full instead of amending individual bye-laws.
This note is for general information only and does not constitute legal advice. Readers should refer to the full text of the Government Resolution and seek advice on the facts of their own case.