Mumbai, Sept. 22 -- The Bombay High Court on Saturday held that the registrar of co-operative societies cannot refuse to exercise its jurisdiction by claiming that a matter is 'too complicated'. The court was hearing a plea by a city-based housing society which had tried to recover maintenance dues dating back to 1982 from defaulting members. The case first arose when Saraf Kaskar Industrial Premises Co-operative Society Ltd approached the deputy registrar trying to recover maintenance dues from its members. The deputy registrar however rejected the society's application and said that matter involved "complicated questions of law" and advised the society to instead follow up the case before the co-operative court and go through a full-fledged trial. According to the registrar, the complications arose because some members had made a few payments that did not reflect in the society's accounts. The registrar also added that the society had waited several decades before bringing up the matter, without offering any explanation for the delay. The exact amount of the dues too were unclear from the records. Examining the registrar's orders, justice Amit Borkar said that there was a special remedy under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 which had been enacted precisely to give housing and industrial premises societies a speedy and effective mechanism to recover legitimate dues. The provision allowed the registrar to treat arrears owed to the society as arrears of land revenue, and issue a recovery certificate. The court explained that such proceedings are intended to be quick and do not need a full trial which would involve the examination of witnesses or cross-examination. The bench said that the registrar is expected to "apply his mind" to the documents produced by both sides. The court highlighted, "A registrar must not allow frivolous objections by members to derail the recovery machinery, but he also cannot ignore genuine disputes raised with reference to records," the court said. The court directed that both parties should appear before the deputy registrar, K-West Ward on September 29, and the registrar must then decide the matter within three months....