Developer Can't Delay Your Society's Conveyance to Grab Future FSI, Bombay HC Rules

If your society is still waiting for its builder to execute the conveyance deed, you have probably heard some version of this excuse: "wait a little longer, there may be additional FSI or TDR coming, let's sort that out first, then we'll convey the land." On 17 July 2026, the Bombay High Court told a Vile Parle developer, in no uncertain terms, that this is not how the law works.

Justice Sandeep Marne dismissed a petition filed by Ariisto Realtors Pvt Ltd challenging a 2025 order of the Competent Authority that had granted unilateral deemed conveyance of land and building to Ariisto Cloud Co-operative Housing Society. The ruling matters well beyond this one building — the developer's core argument, that it retained a contractual right to exploit additional FSI available under the Development Control and Promotion Regulations (DCPR), 2034, and that conveyance should therefore wait, is one of the most common stalling tactics societies across Mumbai, Thane, and Navi Mumbai run into. The Court has now made clear that it does not hold up.

Here is what happened, what the law actually requires of your builder, and how your society can act on it.

Why the Developer's Argument Failed

The developer raised two objections before the High Court. First, it argued that the Competent Authority had wrongly entertained a second deemed conveyance application after an earlier one had been rejected — effectively an impermissible review of its own order. Second, and more significantly, it claimed a contractual right to utilise additional FSI available under the DCPR 2034, and argued that conveyance should be deferred until that entitlement was settled.

The Court rejected both. On the substantive point, it held that the grant of conveyance to a housing society cannot be postponed merely because a developer may, at some future point, seek to benefit from additional development potential, TDR, or FSI unlocked by a changed development regime. Legislation, the Court observed, gives housing societies "a quicker and swifter remedy" to secure title — and a developer's speculative future interest in the plot is not a legally valid reason to withhold it.

For committees dealing with a builder who keeps citing "pending redevelopment potential" or "future TDR value" as a reason to delay conveyance, this ruling is now a direct, on-point precedent to raise with the Competent Authority.

Your Society's Legal Timeline Under MOFA

The obligation to convey is not discretionary, and it runs on a clock. Under the Maharashtra Ownership of Flats (Regulation of the Promotion of Construction, Sale, Management and Transfer) Act, 1963 (MOFA), the promoter is legally required to execute the conveyance deed within a fixed period of the society's formation. If that deadline passes without action, the law hands the remedy to the society itself.

Applying Online Through PRATYAY MahaBhumi

Societies no longer need to file paperwork in person at the Deputy Registrar's office. The state cooperation department's PRATYAY MahaBhumi portal, operational since May 2025, has digitised the entire deemed conveyance process — from application to final certificate. Of Maharashtra's roughly 1.25 lakh registered housing societies, well over 70,000 are still without a conveyance deed, which is exactly the gap this portal and this ruling are aimed at closing.

1. 1Confirm the 4-month conveyance deadline has lapsed from your society's date of registration, and that no conveyance deed has been executed.
2. 2Pass a managing committee resolution, ratified by the general body, authorising office bearers to file the deemed conveyance application.
3. 3Register on the PRATYAY MahaBhumi portal and upload the society registration certificate, the flat purchasers' agreements, the 7/12 extract or property register card, and the architect's area certificate.
4. 4Track the application status online and attend any hearing the Competent Authority schedules — in-person hearings are still held where necessary despite the digital filing.
5. 5If the developer raises a future-FSI or TDR objection, cite the Ariisto Cloud ruling directly — it is now on-point authority that such an objection cannot delay conveyance.

What This Means for Your Committee and Members

• Your society is entitled to pursue unilateral deemed conveyance the moment the promoter's Section 11 deadline lapses — you do not need the developer's cooperation or consent.
• A developer citing future FSI, TDR, or redevelopment potential as a reason to delay is not a valid legal ground to withhold conveyance, per this ruling.
• The Competent Authority is not strictly limited to the area mentioned in the original flat purchase agreement — it can rely on property register cards and architect's certificates to determine the correct extent of land and building to be conveyed.
• Without conveyance, your society cannot undertake self-redevelopment, raise development finance against the land, or fully control its own future — this is not a paperwork formality, it is the legal foundation of ownership.

If your society has been waiting years for conveyance and has been told to hold off because of a pending FSI or TDR arrangement, this is the moment to revisit that position with your managing committee and, ideally, a consultant who can prepare and file the application correctly the first time.