DEEPAK AGARWAL Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner is a flat owner and a Board Manager of the Diamond City West Apartment Owners' Association, which is a residential complex registered under the West Bengal Apartment Ownership Act, 1972 (hereinafter referred to as, 'the 1972 Act").

(2.) A short question involved in the present writ petition is whether the Competent Authority (CA) under the said Act was duty-bound to look into the complaints lodged by the petitioner in respect of the functioning of the said Association.

(3.) Learned counsel for the petitioner places reliance on Sec. 16B of the 1972 Act and submits that under the said provision, the CA is bound to look into the said irregularities. It is urged that the petitioner has raised the issues of irregular and illegal functioning of the Association before the Association itself, but to no effect. It is argued that there are hundreds of e-mails and Whatsapp messages by the members of the Association ventilating their grievances to the respondent-Authorities. However, since the respondent no.2 to 11 are in the helm of affairs, they have suppressed such allegations. The respondent no.3 being the President of the Association, it is argued, will never record such grievances as an agenda in any of the Annual General Meetings (AGMs) or Special General Meetings (SGMs) of the Association.