Reminder: Societies Must File Form E-2 Six Months Before Committee's Term Ends

Under Section 73CB of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, every housing society's managing committee is elected for a five-year term. Well before that term runs out, the society is legally required to notify the election machinery so a fresh election can be organised in time. Many committees elected around 2021 are now approaching this five-year mark, which makes this a timely reminder for managing committees to check their own election dates.

What Form E-2 requires

Section 73CB(14) of the Act requires every society to submit a report in Form E-2 to the District, Taluka, or Ward Co-operative Election Officer at least six months before the managing committee's term expires. The form essentially tells the election machinery the exact date the current committee's term ends, so that the process of appointing a returning officer, inviting nominations, and holding a poll can be completed before that date. Societies that fail to send this intimation on time can find themselves without a validly elected committee once the term lapses, since an expired committee has no authority to continue taking decisions on the society's behalf.

Who conducts the election

All society elections are held under the supervision of the State Co-operative Election Authority (SCEA), a body separate from the Registrar's office, specifically for cooperative elections. For societies with 250 or more members, the SCEA typically appoints its own returning officer to conduct the poll by secret ballot. Smaller societies follow the same broad process — nominations, scrutiny for disqualification under the bye-laws, and a secret ballot — but with a returning officer appointed at the Taluka or Ward level.

What this means for housing societies

• Check your society's last election date now — if the current committee took charge around September 2021 or earlier, the five-year term may already be close to lapsing, and Form E-2 should be filed without further delay.
• The Form E-2 filing is the society's own responsibility; the Election Officer does not proactively remind societies to send it.
• A committee that continues in office after its term has expired, without a valid election or extension, risks its decisions and expenditures being challenged later, and members can face disqualification under bye-law 117 for irregularities during this period.
• Societies should keep proof of the E-2 filing (acknowledgment or dispatch record) in their records, since disputes over whether the intimation was sent on time are common in cooperative court cases over committee legitimacy.

Secretaries are advised to calendar the five-year renewal date immediately after every election so that the Form E-2 deadline is never missed, and to consult the society's assigned Election Officer's office if there is any doubt about the exact expiry date of the current committee's term.