Chandigarh, August 14–
The Punjab Cabinet, led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Singh Mann, on Thursday approved an amendment to the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961.
A spokesperson from the Chief Minister’s Office disclosed today that the decision was taken during a meeting of the Council of Ministers chaired by the Chief Minister.
As per the decision, the Cabinet approved amendments to the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961, and the withdrawal of stamp duty and registration fee exemptions for certain classes of cooperative societies. Currently, the Act provides exemptions from compulsory registration, originally intended to facilitate the development of cooperative institutions. However, this provision has enabled property transactions—particularly in urban housing societies—to take place without formal registration or the payment of stamp duty and registration fees.
This situation has encouraged unregistered possession, benami transactions, and other legally risky arrangements. Therefore, an amendment to Section 37 of the Act has been made by adding Clauses 2 and 3. These clauses stipulate that the State Government may, through a notification in the Official Gazette, direct that the exemption under sub-section (1), or any part thereof, shall not apply to certain classes of cooperative societies or specified categories of instruments.