A minute is a record of proceeding of a meeting of any Housing Society duly kept in pursuance of the MCS Act and Bye-laws. Minutes contain inter alia a description of the type of meeting to which they relate, its date, time and venue, mention about persons attended the meeting concerned, confirmation of minutes of previous meeting as a result of practice, decisions taken process at the meeting, discussions held, voting on resolutions, etc.

Minutes can be classified into the following three types based on the kind of meeting to which they relate:

(i) Minutes of Annual General Meetings

(ii) Minutes of Special General Meetings

(iii) Minutes of Managing Committee Meetings

The normal practice is handwritten in Minutes Register or typed out and then pasted in the Minutes with seal of the Housing Society affixed on four corners of the page duly signed by the Chairman and Secretary. In certain cases, minutes may be kept in loose leaf binder provided the following conditions are fulfilled:—

(i) The pages are serially numbered seal affixed and signed as narrated above;(ii)

The loose leaves are bound up at reasonable interval, say not exceeding six months;

(iii) There should be proper locking device to ensure security and proper control to prevent irregular removal of the loose leaves. 

Minutes of any Meeting should state the name of the Housing Society, time, date, place, type of meeting, a record of the name of the members present in the meeting, etc. Minutes should contain summary of the discussions held leading to the resolution.

If the necessity for altering minutes arises before they are signed by the Chairman and Secretary but after they are written in the minute book, the alteration may be made and initialed by the chairman and Secretary. Once minutes have been signed, they should not on any account be altered.

If it becomes necessary to vary a resolution previously adopted, that variation should always be carried out by means of a resolution passed at a subsequent meeting only.

In the case if it is subsequently desired that a resolution previously passed should not be acted upon, the resolution should be formally rescinded by a separate resolution at a later meeting. The minutes of the first meeting being a correct record of what took place at that meeting will remain, but a marginal note in red ink may be made to the effect that the resolution is "Rescinded by resolution of the Meeting dated .........".

Minutes of the proceedings of meetings are an evidence of the proceedings recorded therein. This does not mean, however, that such minutes are conclusive evidence of the proceedings and cannot be brought into question. Meaning is, in the event of any legal proceeding, it will be accepted as evidence and the onus of disproving them will be upon the person who is contesting their accuracy.

The Minutes book must be maintained and kept at the office of the Housing Society. It cannot be taken to any other place outside the premises except, for getting the same inspected from any authority prescribed under the Law.

It is the duty of the Office Bearers/Managing Committee to arrange the dispatching the hard copy of the notices and final minutes of the meeting with acknowledge due from the member if stationed outside the Housing Society or, email him the soft copy on his email ID registered with the Housing Society.

We have an experience of many Housing Societies who avail my Counseling Services in Mumbai in the matter of administration and Redevelopment of Housing Societies in Maharashtra who have been following the rules very meticulously as recited above with an exemplary status of maintenance of the records of minutes. I brief below, the important excerpts from the latest Bye-Laws governing the Co-operative Housing Societies in Maharashtra for the benefit and knowledge of Managing Committees to have effective maintenance of the minutes of various types of meetings held.

Bye-Law 90: Recording of minutes at the first General Body Meeting.

The person, who presides over the first general meeting shall record the minutes of the meeting, sign them and hand them over to the Secretary of the Society elected at the first meeting of the Provisional Committee or nominated by the Registration Authority under the bye-law No. 89(b).

Bye- Law 99: Notice of a General Body Meeting.

The committee shall decide the date, time and place of every general body meeting of the society and the business to be transacted thereat; provided that the business to be transacted at the requisitioned special general body meeting shall be only that mentioned in the requisition. The notice convening the general body meeting shall be issued by the Secretary of the Society accordingly. On his failure to issue the notice, the Chairman shall issue it.

Bye-law 100: Period of notice of a General Body Meeting.

In case of the annual general body meeting, 14 clear day's notice and in the case of the special general body meeting, 5 clear day's notice of the meeting shall be given to all the members of the Society, under intimation to the Federation and to the Registering Authority. In case of an emergency, the special general body meeting may be called even at a shorter notice, if the Committee unanimously decides to call the special general body meeting at a shorter notice. The agenda of such emergency meeting and the reasons of emergency for which the meeting is called shall be communicated in writing to all the members. Also the decision of such meeting shall be communicated in writing to all the members, within two days of such meeting.

Bye-Law 109: Recording of the minutes of the General Body Meetings.

The committee shall finalize the draft minutes of every general body meeting of the society within 3 months of the date of the meeting and circulate the draft minutes among all the members of the society within 15 days of the meeting of the Committee at which the draft minutes were finalized. The members of the society may communicate to the Secretary of the Society, their observations, if any, on the draft minutes, within 15 days of the date of their circulation. The committee, at its subsequent meeting, shall prepare the final minutes of the general body meeting after taking into consideration the observations, if any, made by the members on the draft minutes and cause them to be recorded in the minutes book, by the Secretary of the Society or any other person authorized in that behalf.

Bye-Law 137: Attending meetings of the Managing Committee and recording the minutes by the Secretary.

The Secretary of the society shall attend every meeting of the Committee and record its minutes and place the same for confirmation before the next meeting of the Committee, after the minutes are signed by the Secretary of the society and the Chairman of the meeting. In the absence of the Secretary of the society, the Chairman of the society shall make alternate arrangement for recording minutes of the meeting.

Whenever a member is removed or resigned due to any reasons the same has also to be recorded into the minutes of the committee meetings. However, such vacancies to be filled by co-option shall not be more than two.

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