Mumbai, Dec. 10 -- Granting relief to a man who was seeking membership of a Nariman Point housing society as he was his deceased mother's successor and heir, the Bombay High Court has upheld the order of the divisional joint registrar who found him eligible for membership. The court said that if his parents, who did not own a flat in the building but owned a basement space, were granted membership of the society, it cannot be denied to their successor. The court said that section 154-13 of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act casts a statutory obligation on the society to transfer the share, right, title and interest of the deceased member to their son since there was no competing claim. "The petitioner society cannot defeat this statutory command by raising, at this late stage, an objection to the nature of the premises, when it had itself admitted the predecessors (mother and father) of Respondent No.3 (the son) as members on the very same basis," Justice Amit Borkar said in his judgment pronounced on Tuesday. Foreshore Cooperative Housing Society in Nariman Point had moved the HC challenging the January 27 order of divisional joint registrar, which had directed the society to admit Ramesh Sippy as a member of the housing society. The society contended that Ramesh's father Gopal Sippy had purchased a basement unit in the nine-storey building constructed in 1963. He did not own any flats in the building but he was made a member of the society in 1966. After his death, his wife Katy was made a member of the society. Katy, who passed away in 2007, had made her son Ramesh her nominee. Ramesh applied for transfer of her shares in the society in 2016. In 2018, the society admitted him as a 'nominal member'. In July 2018, he applied for full membership. Since the society did not decide on his application, in March 2023, he filed an application for full membership before the deputy registrar of Cooperative Housing Societies. He said he had been using the basement premises as a godown or office space for 23 years and between 2016 and 2021, he had submitted seven membership applications to the society without any response. The society, in its reply, stated that Ramesh did not own any flat in the building but owned a basement unit that was for parking or storage. The society said "such premises cannot confer eligibility for membership". The deputy registrar, however, held that Ramesh Sippy was entitled to the membership. In the High Court, the society said that Sippy's claim to full membership was unsustainable because he was granted a nominal membership in 2018 and he had not contested it. It argued that after Katy's death there was no "automatic transfer" of her membership to her son. Justice Borkar, however, said, "Once it is shown that a particular unit stood in the name of a deceased member, and that the nominee or heir has stepped into his shoes and there is no competing claim, the society cannot arbitrarily refuse transfer and membership on grounds which are inconsistent with its past conduct and its own records." The society that had once granted membership to owners of the basement unit "cannot now turn around and contend that a person who succeeds to the same unit is ineligible only because the unit is a basement," Justice Borkar said....