The Chinar CGHS Files: Unmasking the Criminal Cartels and Regulatory Rot Paralyzing Delhi’s Housing Societies

Case of Chinar Co-operative Group Housing Society (CGHS) Ltd. (Chinar CGHS), Majestic Apartments, Plot No. 3, Sector 18, Dwarka, New Delhi 110 078

• 🚨 The Central Information Commission (CIC) has exposed a pattern of “misleading and variable” defenses used by the Chinar CGHS management to bury financial transparency and evade the RTI Act.
• 🤝 Systematic collusion between the Registrar of Co-operative Societies (RCS) and corrupt management committees has rendered the legal appeal process redundant, granting effectively legal immunity to residential cartels.
• ⚖️ The “Clean House” community court identifies a persistent pattern of criminality at Chinar CGHS (Majestic Apartments), ranging from “Extortion Under the Garb of Entry Fees” to the use of vulgar intimidation.
• 🏛️ The total collapse of the rule of law within the Delhi Government is evidenced by its refusal to penalize lawless officials, allowing housing societies to transform into dangerous centers of unchecked crime.

By Rakesh Raman
New Delhi | February 19, 2026

1. THE CHINAR CGHS CRISIS: A CASE STUDY IN INSTITUTIONAL DEFIANCE

The case of Chinar Co-operative Group Housing Society (CGHS), widely known as Majestic Apartments, serves as a chilling microcosm of the breakdown of the rule of law in Delhi’s residential sector. This is not a mere administrative friction; it is a calculated assault on transparency laws designed to protect citizens from institutional overreach. By examining the Chinar CGHS crisis, we expose the strategic playbook used by “shady” management committees (MCs) to paralyze the Right to Information (RTI) framework and hide deeper financial irregularities.

At the center of this defiance is the society’s President and Public Information Officer (PIO), Mr. Parveen Wadhwa, whose handling of an RTI application filed by resident Mr. O.P. Khurana reveals a staggering contempt for statutory obligations. Mr. Khurana sought 15 categories of information regarding car parking allotments—a dispute sparked by the illegal capture of one of his two parking spaces and the withholding of his share certificate.

Mr. Wadhwa’s defense was a masterclass in obstruction: he initially labeled the request “mischievous,” claimed it was based on “fake documents,” and then pivoted to the classic shield of “privacy invasion.” These variable and misleading responses were not accidental; they are standard tactics used by corrupt MCs to suppress evidence of financial crimes.

The Central Information Commission (CIC), in its show-cause notice decision dated 16.02.2026, took a sharp “adverse note” of these shifting narratives. The Commission dismissed the “privacy” and “mischievous” arguments as legally baseless, particularly after the PIO attempted to claim mid-hearing that the society was not even amenable to the RTI Act—a direct contradiction of established law. This institutional defiance is a symptom of a deeper rot, enabled by the very regulatory bodies that are supposed to act as watchdogs.

2. THE COLLUSION NEXUS: HOW THE RCS ABETS HOUSING CRIMES

The Registrar of Co-operative Societies (RCS) is statutorily mandated to oversee the governance of housing societies under the Delhi Cooperative Societies Act, 2003. However, instead of enforcing the law, the RCS has become a facilitator of lawlessness. By failing to adjudicate Mr. Khurana’s First Appeal, the Office of the RCS effectively granted the Chinar CGHS management a “free pass,” rendering the mandatory first stage of the legal process redundant and forcing a long-suffering resident to seek relief from the CIC.

This failure is the result of a “hand in glove” relationship between MC members and RCS bureaucrats. There is a systemic and corrosive cycle at play: MC members allegedly use members’ money—the very funds meant for society maintenance—to bribe RCS officials. In exchange, these bureaucrats systematically “junk” resident complaints, ensuring that no meaningful investigation ever takes place. This nexus creates a vacuum where administrative appeals are ignored and the law is treated as a mere suggestion.

The corruption is not limited to the RCS. A sprawling web of negligence involves the Delhi Development Authority (DDA), Delhi Police, Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), Delhi Jal Board (DJB), Delhi Fire Service (DFS), and the Delhi Pollution Control Committee (DPCC). When these departments fail to act, housing societies transform into “dangerous centres of crime.” The role of the police is particularly egregious; as noted in the source context, corrupt officers often “brush complaints under the carpet” after receiving payoffs, leaving residents defenseless against the whims of a criminalized management.

3. BEYOND FINANCIAL FRAUD: EXTORTION, INTIMIDATION, AND HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

Corruption in Delhi’s housing societies has evolved far beyond simple bookkeeping errors; it now encompasses active criminal conduct and the gross violation of human rights. At Chinar CGHS, the allegations are severe, including “Extortion Under the Garb of Entry Fees”, defiance of law, and intimidation of residents. These acts are not administrative oversights—they are tools of financial extraction and physical control used by the MC to consolidate power.

[ You can click here to read the previous case report of Chinar CGHS and the notice issued to the MC. ]

The victimization of Mr. O.P. Khurana illustrates the lengths to which these cartels will go to silence dissent. Beyond the withholding of parking records, the Society President allegedly used “vulgar and derogatory language” against Mr. Khurana and moved to arbitrarily expel him from the Society. Under the law, expulsion is a judicial process requiring RCS approval; by bypassing this, the MC used expulsion as a weapon of intimidation. This tactic serves a clear “So What?”: it warns other residents that any challenge to the MC’s authority will result in character assassination and the loss of their housing rights.

For the past eight years, the “Clean House” editorial and advisory service has functioned as a “community court,” documenting the failure of the state. Its synthesis of findings reveals a recurring pattern of crimes:

• Financial Crimes: Opacity in financial dealings used specifically to mask embezzlement and fraud.
• Criminal Intimidation: The use of derogatory language and threats to maintain a climate of fear.
• Administrative Extortion: The demand for illegal fees as a prerequisite for basic resident rights.

The total absence of punitive action against “lawless” officials like Mr. Wadhwa proves that the current system is designed to protect the predator, not the prey.

4. THE EROSION OF THE RULE OF LAW: A SYSTEMIC GOVERNANCE FAILURE

The crisis at Chinar CGHS is the “smoking gun” of a broader systemic collapse. When a government allows private management committees to openly defy the Delhi Cooperative Societies Act, 2003, it signals the total erosion of the rule of law. The Delhi Government’s refusal to penalize the Chinar CGHS President or the delinquent Assistant Registrar—despite the CIC’s adverse findings—indicates that accountability has been completely replaced by institutionalized bribery.

The current state of governance in Delhi’s residential sector is defined by three critical failures:

1. Defiance of Transparency Mandates: Management committees consistently ignore RCS directives to maintain functional, transparent websites, purposefully hiding their “shady working” and financial dealings from the members who fund them.
2. Opacity as a Shield for Crime: Financial opacity is maintained not out of negligence, but as a deliberate strategy to conceal “financial crimes” and the bribery of government officials.
3. Institutionalized Lawlessness: The failure of the Delhi Government to take punitive action against exposed officials confirms that the state is operating in a lawless condition, where RTI statutes are routinely and intentionally ignored.

The supremacy of the RTI Act and the Delhi Cooperative Societies Act must be restored immediately. The only path forward is the immediate removal of Parveen Wadhwa and the delinquent Assistant Registrar from their positions. Anything less than the total purging of these corrupt elements is an admission that the Delhi Government has abdicated its duty to its citizens, leaving them at the mercy of residential cartels.

Note: This case is part of our “Clean House” anti-corruption social service, which helps the residents of Delhi raise their voice against the growing corruption and injustice in housing societies where millions of people suffer because of rampant corruption and lawlessness by the MC members or the administrators.

By Rakesh Raman, who is a national award-winning journalist and social activist. He is the founder of a humanitarian organization RMN Foundation which is working in diverse areas to help the disadvantaged and distressed people in the society.