PUNE: Cooperative housing societies can apply for deemed conveyance online from Monday through the state cooperation department’s dedicated portal — PRATYAY MahaBhumi — launched earlier this week.
The new system eliminates the need for multiple visits to deputy registrar’s office, allowing over 70,000 eligible societies to complete the entire process — from submission to certification — of procuring deemed conveyance digitally, said a senior official of the state cooperation department.
Chief minister Devendra Fadnavis inaugurated the PRATYAY MahaBhumi portal, a part of the state cooperation department’s e-governance initiative. Expected to start operations next week, it will handle every stage of the deemed conveyance process, including document uploads, scrutiny, hearing schedules and final order, in an online format.
According to the new system, the entire process of deemed conveyance — from verification of documents to issuance of certificate — must be completed within six months. While all documentation will now be uploaded digitally, hearings can be held offline if required.
Shreeprasad Parab, expert director, State Housing Federation, told TOI, “Virtual hearings are no longer just a pandemic solution. They are now a vital part of making cooperative dispute resolution faster and more accessible. This step brings us closer to a true single-window system and supports the broader goal of ‘ease of doing business’ in the cooperative sector,” he said.
The cooperation department clarified that physical documents would not be accepted. All hearing schedules and communications would be shared online.
“This system will save time for citizens, parties and officials alike. The PRATYAY platform (paperless revision and appeal in transparent way) is a part of the e-quasi-judicial framework and aims to make legal processes faster, digital and more transparent,” said state cooperation commissioner and registrar Deepak Taware in a circular issued earlier this week.
“This is a game-changer for housing societies. Citizens will no longer need to make repeated visits to govt offices. The system ensures faster, transparent decisions,” said deputy registrar Kiran Sonawane from the cooperation department’s head office.
All divisional joint registrars, district deputy registrars and assistant registrars have been directed to process deemed conveyance applications exclusively through the online system, said another official. Offline applications will no longer be accepted. “To support the rollout, training sessions are being conducted for department officials and legal professionals handling quasi-judicial functions under the act,” said the official.
Of Maharashtra’s 1.25 lakh registered housing societies, a staggering 78,116 still do not have deemed conveyance. It means 62% of the cooperative societies do not have legal ownership of their land, leaving them exposed to future disputes and blocking critical processes like major repairs and redevelopment.
At present, eight documents are required to apply for deemed conveyance. Several housing federations have urged the govt to reduce it to five or six to ease the process.
The issue of deemed conveyance has plagued Maharashtra’s housing sector for years. The provision was introduced in 2008 and the rules were notified in 2010, but the actual uptake remained dismally low. Many societies either never started the process or abandoned it midway because of the cumbersome steps involved. This left thousands of housing complexes legally dependent on developers or landowners — often decades after completion.
Without deemed conveyance, the land remains legally owned by the builder or the original landowner, restricting the society’s rights and operations. Residents of older buildings, in particular, face hurdles while trying to undertake structural repairs or initiate redevelopment. Legal ownership also plays a vital role in securing loans or availing additional construction rights under Transfer of Development Rights (TDR) and other urban planning tools.
