Can a later building plan with extra development rights shrink a housing society’s recreation-ground share? Not once the entitlement has crystallised, the Bombay High Court has held. Devendra Co-operative Housing Society gets 463.38 square metres of a common recreation ground, and the Court found that delay did not defeat its claim to full conveyance.
Mumbai: A housing society’s recreation-ground share, once established, cannot be pared down by pointing to a later plan that allowed far more construction, the Bombay High Court has held while directing a fresh deemed-conveyance certificate for Devendra Co-operative Housing Society [Devendra Co-operative Housing Society Ltd. v. District Deputy Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Mumbai City (4) and others].
Justice Sandeep V. Marne allowed the society’s petition on November 4, 2026. The society receives a proportionate share of 463.38 square metres out of the 1,086-square-metre recreation ground, and the Court sent the matter back for the limited purpose of issuing a fresh certificate carrying that entitlement and corrected land descriptions.
What the society gets, and when
The May 4, 2017 order was set aside. The fresh certificate is to cover the society’s existing land entitlement of 2,625.84 square metres, its building and the 463.38-square-metre share in the recreation ground.
The parties must appear before the authority on November 17, 2026 to seek a hearing date, and the certificate is to be issued expeditiously, preferably within two months. Once it is issued, the society may register a rectification deed and the revenue records are to be corrected. The writ petition was allowed with no order as to costs.
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Two plans, two percentages
The layout in Borivali was developed by Brij Builders. Under a May 4, 2017 order, Devendra society had already obtained conveyance of 2,625.84 square metres. That order mentioned its proportionate undivided interest in common amenities, the recreation ground among them, but never put a figure on its share of that ground.
Devendra society claimed 463.38 square metres, working from the earlier layout and plot-potential calculations. Shree Rasraj Heights Co-operative Housing Society argued for 323.21 square metres, based on the built-up areas in a revised 2013 plan.
The gap traced back to Rasraj Heights, which had been built after earlier structures were demolished, with 5,028 square metres of additional transferable development rights and incentive FSI. Dividing the common ground by its enlarged built-up area would lower Devendra’s percentage.
Paragraphs 40 and 41 hold that Devendra’s entitlement to conveyance crystallised four months after its 1991 registration, under Rule 9 of the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Rules, 1964. The built-up areas of the existing structures did not differ materially between the original 1982 plan and the 2009 revised plan, and the much larger 2013 plan could not decide the proportionate division.
Nobody had challenged the 2017 conveyance of Devendra’s net plot area. Having accepted that entitlement on the footing of the earlier plan, the respondents could not pick a different plan when it came to the recreation-ground share, the Court noted.
Delay, finality and the continuing obligation
The respondents resisted the petition on delay, on the benefit the society had already taken under the 2017 order, and on the finality of earlier proceedings. The Court turned all of these down. Paragraph 30 holds that once proportionate division is undertaken, the competent authority cannot stop at the net plot area and leave the recreation-ground entitlement unspecified.
Paragraph 36 explains that duties under the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963 give rise to a continuing cause of action. Taking a conveyance for less land than the society is entitled to does not, by itself, stop it from claiming the balance. Registering a conveyance deed does not bar a challenge to an order that conveyed insufficient land either, since estoppel does not operate against the statute.
Why the share matters for redevelopment
As paragraphs 24 and 31 explain, the Development Control and Promotion Regulations, 2034 allow floor space index, or FSI, to be computed on the gross plot area, recreation-ground land included. If shares are not specified, societies in a common layout may be unsure how much development potential each can use.
The corrigendum and the July ruling
The society had earlier obtained a January 2026 corrigendum specifying its share. In July, the High Court set that aside because the authority could not adjudicate a disputed entitlement through a corrigendum, while leaving the society free to challenge the original 2017 order. The present judgment decides that substantive challenge; it does not recognise a general power for the authority to review its concluded orders.
Case: Devendra Co-operative Housing Society Ltd. v. District Deputy Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Mumbai City (4) and others
Case number: Writ Petition No. 9954/2026
Court: Bombay High Court, Civil Appellate Jurisdiction
Bench: Justice Sandeep V. Marne
Decision: November 4, 2026
Neutral citation: 2026:BHC-AS:44937
Outcome: Petition allowed; limited remand for fresh deemed-conveyance certificate including specified recreation-ground share.