Parking Allotment in Housing Societies Maharashtra: Bye-law 78 to 84 Rules, First-Come-First-Served, and the Dispute Every Committee Faces

The situation

A member with two cars wants a second parking slot. Another member, who has never owned a vehicle, has just bought one and wants the slot that has sat "informally reserved" for a departed resident's visitor car for years. A third member has been renting out his allotted stilt slot to a neighbour for a monthly fee. The secretary is asked to sort all three in the same committee meeting — and most secretaries have no idea which of these the bye-laws actually permit.

Parking is one of the most litigated everyday issues in Maharashtra housing societies precisely because most committees run it on custom and goodwill rather than on the bye-laws that actually govern it. The 2014 Model Bye-laws devote bye-laws 78 to 84 specifically to parking, and the rules are more precise — and more restrictive — than most committees assume.

What counts as "parking space" under the bye-laws

The bye-laws define two distinct terms, and the distinction matters when a dispute reaches the Registrar or a court:

• •"Parking Space" means the open space within the society's premises earmarked for parking of vehicles, and includes a stilt, basement, podium, or mechanised parking area.
• •"Parking Slot" means a demarcated and numbered individual slot for a single vehicle (four-wheeler or two-wheeler) within that Parking Space.

This is not a cosmetic distinction. A society allots slots, not undifferentiated space — which is why bye-law 79 requires the committee to number and demarcate every stilt or open parking area so that no member is inconvenienced, and to ensure members use the space only for the purpose for which it is allotted.

The rules that actually govern allotment

1. A written Parking Policy, adopted by the General Body — not decided ad hoc by the committee. Bye-law 78(a) requires the society to frame and adopt Parking Rules at a General Body meeting, in accordance with the Act and the rules made under it. A committee that allots slots purely on its own judgment, without a General Body-approved policy behind it, is acting outside the bye-law.

2. First come, first served — and no right to sell or transfer. Bye-law 78(b) states that allotment of Parking Space is to be made by the committee on a "first come, first served" basis for available slots. Critically, the same clause makes clear the member has no right to sell or transfer the slot allotted to him by the society. The member who has been renting out his slot to a neighbour is acting against this bye-law — the slot is not his property to lease out; it is allotted use, revocable and non-transferable.

3. No member may use more slots than officially allotted. Bye-law 78(c) restricts every member strictly to the number of slots the society has formally allotted to him.

4. Eligibility is tied to having a vehicle — normally one slot per member. Bye-law 80 makes a member with a vehicle eligible for a slot, but states that normally no member shall be eligible for more than one parking slot. The vehicle may be owned by the member himself, or provided by his employer, or by a firm in which he is a partner, or a company of which he is a director. A second slot can only go to a member who already holds one, and only if slots remain unallotted for want of other applicants — and even then, on a year-to-year basis, subject to those slots not being needed by members who hold none.

5. Excess demand is resolved by a fair, transparent process approved by the General Body — not by the committee's discretion. Where eligible members outnumber available slots, bye-law 81 requires the Managing Committee to allot slots annually through a fair and transparent process, in concurrence with the General Body's regulations — not by an internal committee decision alone. This is commonly implemented as an annual draw or lottery, but the bye-law's actual requirement is fairness and transparency under a General Body-sanctioned process, not any one specific method.

6. Applications go through the Secretary, following the same procedure as every other application. Bye-law 82 requires a member wanting a slot to apply to the Secretary with the necessary details, and directs that the general application-disposal procedure of bye-law 63 be followed. Under bye-law 63, the Secretary must acknowledge every application, flag any shortcoming within 15 days, place it before the committee or General Body at its next meeting, and the committee must dispose of it within three months, recording reasons in the minutes if it is rejected.

7. Every allotted slot carries a charge — whether or not the vehicle is actually parked. Bye-law 83 requires every member to pay parking charges for the slots allotted to him at the rate fixed by the General Body, irrespective of whether he actually parks a vehicle there or not. A member cannot argue he owes nothing because his car is elsewhere that month.

8. Two-wheelers, scooters and autorickshaws need prior committee permission. Bye-law 84 separately requires a member with a scooter, motorcycle, or autorickshaw to obtain the committee's prior permission before parking it in the compound, and to pay the charges the General Body has fixed.

What your committee should do

1. 1Check whether a Parking Policy was ever formally adopted at a General Body meeting. If not, convene one and place a written Parking Policy on the agenda under bye-law 78(a) — this is the document that should govern every allotment decision going forward, not committee discretion.
2. 2Number and demarcate every slot as bye-law 79 requires, so there is no dispute later about which slot belongs to which allotment.
3. 3Audit current allotments against bye-law 80. Flag any member holding more than one slot and confirm the extra slot was given only because no other eligible member wanted it, and only on a year-to-year basis.
4. 4Stop any informal sub-letting or sale of allotted slots. Write to the member concerned citing bye-law 78(b) and record the committee's decision in the minutes.
5. 5Route every fresh application through the Secretary in writing, log the date of receipt, and track the three-month disposal deadline under bye-law 63.
6. 6When demand exceeds supply, run the allotment through a General Body-approved fair process — draw of lots is the common route — and minute it as bye-law 81 requires.
7. 7Bill every allotted slot every month, regardless of actual use, per bye-law 83, and separately track two-wheeler permissions and charges under bye-law 84.

A parking dispute that reaches the Registrar or a cooperative court almost always turns on whether the society's own process — General Body approval, demarcation, a written policy, minuted reasons for rejection — was followed. Committees that keep this paper trail rarely lose these disputes; committees that ran parking on informal understanding almost always do.