The right to form a society is now a fundamental right of the citizen (Article 19 of constitution). If flats are sold as per the Maharashtra Ownership Flats Act, 1963 [MOFA] then it is the duty of the Builder / Developer under Section 10 (1) of the Act to form society and follow the procedures of handing over the up-to-date account and related documents to nominated committee.

An association of apartment owners can look after the society’s common areas and facilities such as the garden, pool and gym, implement maintenance procedures and organize functions and celebration. It can also charge maintenance fees, formulate rules for living within the society, take action against troublemakers and, if matters get serious, go to court over issues related to the same. However, for an association to be effective in such legal matters, it is important for it to be properly formed and registered.

Then a society is registered under Co-operation of the builder/promoter, in such a case the builder is called Chief Promoter;and other flat owners automatically become Promoters for Registration of the Society. However, when the Builder is not co-operating to form the Society in such a case one the Flat owner has to take the place of Builder and to be called as Chief Promoter just for registration purpose only, since the Society is under process of registration under non-cooperation of the builder such a CP continues the formality of registration of Society.

You are free to execute a GPA in favour of any of your blood relations in India to authorize him to sign for and on your behalf. The GPA should be compliant with Indian law and be attested at Indian Consulate in US and thereafter registered before the jurisdictional sub-registrar in India.

1. there two ways-

a. You can send POA executed and notarised in USA in favour of any of your close relatives who will present you in all documentations including putting signatures for society formation.

b. Ask the builder to send the papers which require your signature to USA so you can put signature on it and send it back.

For this trivial job your physical presence is not required.

1) you can execute specific power of attorney in favour of relative in Mumbai

2) your advocate can forward you the draft of POA

4) on your approval the POA be forwarded to you for your signature

5) the POA should be attested before the Indian consulate

You can empower any person even the builder through general power of attorney to work on behalf of you. No need to travel only for signature

you can also sigh the document and get attestation by an officer of Indian embassy because embassy is deemed to be land of the country to which it represent . You can get attestation on deposit of reg wink fee and under section 77 of CPC it shall be read in evidence. court and any other authority cannot reject it.

==You have to execute simple GPA (without sale powers) to any of your reliable and trustworthy person (xyz) in India preferably nearest to your Flat. The GPA has to be attested by the Notary in your country. And send the GPA to your person in India through courier. Some nominal fee has to be paid in the concerned Sub Registrar office in Navi Mumbai. Then xyz will get all the powers to sign on behalf of you for the formation of the society and other relevant works.

You have mistaken my answer. I have not said that the builder should send the documents to you. You have to prepare one GPA (without sale powers) to one of your reliable person. He will be representing you in all deeds, as if you are personally present in India. If you still not followed my answers, you can contact me through Kaanoon.com through phone consultation.

1) you cannot force the builder to send you documents by courier .

2) only request him to do so and agree to pay the courier charges

If the builder agrees to do this then it is fine but if he doesn't then you may do what I suggested.

I am a NRI living in the US and had purchased a flat in Navi Mumbai. The builder is now working on the society formation and insists that I need to sign the papers in person. I am currently not able to travel to India for at least a year, so wanted to see if there was any way of getting this done from here. Any suggestions on how to take care of it?

There is no hard and fast rule that you have to be physically present in India to sign the papers for formation of society. You can be represented by a power of attorney agent to sign on your behalf and you can ratify his deeds later on.

Is someone eligible to sign if they have a power of attorney? Also, how do I create the power-of-attorney from out of the country? Are there any other solutions?

There is no difficulty in executing a power of attorney deed. In this case, you can execute a special power of attorney for this purpose alone, at US itself, get it attested by a notary public in US or from an officer of Indian Embassy, send it across to the chosen power agent who shall sign the same as a token of acceptance before a notary public in India after which he can represent you and sign on your behalf on all those papers in which you are required to sign for formation of society.

As one of the responses had suggested, is it ok to ask the builder to send me the documents to sign via courier, and for me to sign them and return via courier? What if the builder is reluctant to do so?

The builder may not agree to do so for the risk involve in it, because if something goes wrong the builder shall be held liable at a later stage so to avoid the same, he may not agree to do so, however the alternate solution is to execute a power of attorney deed as suggested in my previous answer.