Mumbai, Feb. 6 -- Granting relief to residents of a housing society in Ghatkopar East, the Bombay High Court recently ruled that failure to produce a property card cannot deny flat purchasers their right to obtain conveyance. This, the court said, would defeat the purpose of the Maharashtra Ownership of Flats Act (MOFA), a law that protects flat purchasers from indefinite postponement of conveyance. A property card is an official document detailing a property's location, boundaries, ownership history and transaction records while a conveyance deed formally transfers ownership and land title from a seller to a buyer, serving as crucial evidence of ownership. The Ghatkopar Chandrodaya Cooperative Housing Society (GCCHS) had moved the high court challenging an order of the Competent Authority and District Deputy Registrar (II) who had, on February 5, 2024, rejected the housing society's application for deemed conveyance. The flat purchasers had formed a society that was registered in 1997. The competent authority had rejected their application for deemed conveyance on three grounds, one of which was an invalid property card. Justice Amit Borkar observed: "It must be understood that failure to produce a revenue document such as a property card cannot take away the substantive statutory right of flat purchasers to obtain conveyance." In his order dated January 30, the single-judge said that the entire purpose of MOFA would be defeated if the flat purchaser's right to conveyance was denied "merely because a revenue document was not perfectly attached at the first instance". The competent authority's decision to reject GCCHSGhatkopar Chandrodaya Cooperative Housing Society's conveyance application on this ground "shows non-application of mind and cannot stand in law", the judge said....