Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, May 20: Division Bench of State High Court comprising Chief Justice N Paul Vasanthakumar and Justice Ali Mohammad Magrey today directed Registrar Cooperative Societies to take steps to conduct elections to those Management Committees/ Boards whose term has expired, in terms of Section 29 of the J&K Co-operative Societies Act, 1989, within one month and complete the elections within two months.
The case of the appellants before the writ court was that they were elected as Secretaries of various Multipurpose Cooperative Societies. According to them, the societies in which they were elected were registered initially under the Cooperative Societies Act, 1940 and thereafter extended registration under the Jammu and Kashmir Cooperative Societies Act, 1960, which Act was repealed in the year 1989 as such the same are registered under the Act of 1989.
“The Rule 176 empowers the Government to frame rules regarding conduct of elections in the Cooperative Societies. As per Rule 16 of the Jammu and Kashmir Co-operative Societies Rules, 2001, the elections of the members of the Committee/Board of any society shall be conducted under the control of Assistant Commissioner (Revenue) within whose jurisdiction registered office of the society is situated by such returning and other officers as may be appointed by him in this behalf”, the appellants said.
By vesting the power to the Assistant Commissioner (Revenue), who being an authority under the Government, the autonomous character of the societies was jeopardized and the appellants and other elected Boards/Committees submitted representations before the Government pursuant to which SRO 1 of 2005 dated 04.01.2005 was issued amending Rule 16 of 2001 empowering the governing body of the society to conduct the elections of the Committee/Board of society.
By this amendment, the power given to supervise the elections by appointing Returning Officers in tune with 2001 amendment was revoked and the same is being restored through impugned SRO 236 of 2013 dated 25.04.2013.
This amendment was challenged by the appellants along with the election notification issued for conducting elections to various Cooperative Societies including the societies where the appellants are elected as Board of Directors/ Secretaries. They said that while issuing the amendment through SRO 236 of 2013, principles of natural justice were not followed as no hearing was given to the appellants.
After hearing counsel for the appellants, the DB observed, “the period for which the appellants were elected to the Management Committees/ Boards of the Co-operative societies was already over and due to non-conduct of the elections, directions were issued by this court, affirmed by Supreme Court to consider review of the rules and the State Government amended the rules. The impugned SRO was issued for amending the Rules considering the fact of not conducting elections to the Managing Committees/Boards of the Co-operative societies”.
“Thus issuance of notice before amending the Rules, as contended by the counsel for the appellants, was rightly rejected by the Writ Court and in the light of these findings arrived by us, we are unable to find any reason to interfere with the order of the Writ Court”, the DB said and directed Registrar Cooperatives Societies to take steps to conduct elections to those Management Committees/ Boards whose term has expired, in terms of Section 29 of the J&K Co-operative Societies Act, 1989, within one month and complete the elections within two months.
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