AGM notices under the MCS Act after the 30 September 2026 framework

For a housing society that keeps the 1 April to 31 March year, section 75 of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 requires the annual general meeting within six months of the close of the year. That is why 30 September is treated as the outer date. It is a statutory limit, not a managing-committee tradition. What follows is the Cooperative Desk’s reading aid after the 2026 season: what a valid notice still has to contain, and what a meeting held late cannot quietly repair.

Notice is counted in clear days

The model bye-laws in common use require the notice to reach every member at least fourteen clear days before the meeting. Clear days means the day of service and the day of the meeting are both left out of the count. A notice handed over on the 16th for a meeting on the 30th is not fourteen clear days. Count it on a calendar before the notice goes out.

Bye-law numbers are not identical across every adopted set. Quote the bye-laws registered for that society, not a number copied from a circular. Where those bye-laws require it, send the notice to the Registrar and to the affiliating federation as well as to the members.

What the notice has to carry

• Date, time and place. If participation by video is proposed, the link and the manner of identification belong in the notice, not in a message the night before.
• A specific agenda. Any other business is not a vehicle for a resolution the members have not been told about, particularly a redevelopment item, a major contract, or a write-off.
• The papers the members are asked to adopt: the committee report, the audited statements, the audit report, the budget, and the proposal to appoint the auditor.
• The text of any special item, in enough detail that a member can decide whether to attend.

Hybrid meetings and interest on arrears

Public reports of the 2026 rule changes say that general-body participation by video conferencing is recognised, if identification, quorum and the recording of votes are dealt with as the rules require. Before a society holds a hybrid AGM, place the notified rule next to the adopted bye-laws. A vendor’s software does not amend either.

The same reports describe a lower ceiling on interest for maintenance arrears, stated as twelve percent simple against an earlier ceiling of twenty-one percent. Do not pass a resolution on a newspaper figure. Read the notified rule, then look at what the society’s bye-laws already say, and only then decide the rate the general body can honestly charge.

After 30 September

A handsome notice does not cure a meeting the Act required to be held earlier. Section 75(5) allows the Registrar to proceed against the officers whose duty it was to call the meeting, including disqualification in a proper case. It is not an automatic dissolution of every late committee, and it should not be briefed that way. It is also not a licence to pass AGM business in a managing-committee meeting.

• Adoption of accounts, consideration of the audit report, and appointment of the auditor are general-body business.
• If the meeting could not be held, record why, with dates, in the committee minutes. Do not invent minutes for a meeting that did not take place.
• A reconvened meeting still needs a lawful notice. An adjournment is not an excuse to add a new agenda.
• Members who ask to see the accounts before the meeting are exercising the right they are about to vote on.