MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Friday set aside a no-confidence resolution passed by the managing committee of a Goregaon East cooperative housing society that had removed its chairman, holding that a newly inducted committee member was deliberately denied an opportunity to vote.HC strikes down managing committee resolution removing Goregaon CHS chairmanJustice Sandeep Marne struck down the resolution and a consequential certificate issued by the District Deputy Registrar (DDR), which had declared that Madhuri Nyayadhish stood removed as chairman of Padmavati Nagar Co-operative Housing Society after a no-confidence motion was passed against her.The court found that Madhavi Gosavi, who had been inducted as the 10th member of the managing committee three days before the meeting, was neither notified nor allowed to participate in the proceedings.“The meeting was held behind the back of petitioner No. 1 (Gosavi) by deliberately denying her an opportunity to vote,” Justice Marne observed, describing the conduct of the April 15, 2026 meeting as “an illegal act”.The court was hearing a joint petition filed by Gosavi and Nyayadhish challenging the resolution adopted at the special meeting chaired by the DDR. The registrar had subsequently certified that the no-confidence motion had been passed with the requisite two-thirds majority, with six of the nine members present voting in favour of it.Nyayadhish had challenged her removal, while Gosavi contended that she had been unlawfully excluded from the meeting despite being a member of the managing committee and therefore entitled to vote.Accepting their contention, the court held that there was a prima facie violation of Section 154B-24(1) (no confidence motion against office bearers) of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, as Gosavi was denied both notice of the meeting and an opportunity to participate in the vote.The court noted that the members who moved the no-confidence motion appeared unwilling to recognise Gosavi’s voting rights, pointing to their subsequent decision to convene a meeting on May 2 to appoint a new chairman without notifying her.The court said the member who is never called upon to attend the special meeting would be covered by the expression and her absence “cannot be a reason for not counting her in the total working strength of the managing committee for arriving at the two-third majority.”The court observed that Gosavi, having jointly challenged the resolution with Nyayadhish, was unlikely to have voted in favour of the no-confidence motion. In that event, the motion would have secured only six votes in a 10-member committee, falling short of the required two-thirds majority.The court accordingly declared the no-confidence resolution invalid and held that Nyayadhish continues to be the duly elected chairman of the society.