BYAHALLI M.GOVINDEGOWDA Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The grievance of the petitioners, who are members of the respondent-Kolar and Chikkaballapura District Co- operative Central Bank Limited (for short, 'DCC Bank') before this Court is common. In some of the writ petitions, although the District Election Officer had issued a notification in terms of Rule 14(1) of the Karnataka Co- operative Societies Rules, 1960 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Rules 1960', for short) in Form No.XI with directions for appointment of a Returning Officer, who was thereafter required to issue calendar of events (Notice of Election) in terms of Rule 14(3) in Form No.XII, nevertheless, the District Election Officer made a communication dtd. 8/9/2023 to the Commissioner, State Co-operative Election Authority, pointing out to certain deficiencies in the matter of publication of the list of eligible and ineligible voters and appropriate directions were sought for re-issuance of the notification. At that stage, these writ petitions were filed seeking directions to the concerned authorities to proceed to appoint the Returning Officer, so that the Returning Officer Could publish the calendar of events and proceed to conduct the elections to the respondent-DCC Bank.

(2.) However, during the course of the proceedings of these writ petitions, due to the announcement of the Parliamentary Elections-2024, the State Government, through Department of Co-operation issued a notification dtd. 21/3/2024 directing the stay of all further proceedings in the matter of conducting elections to the Co-operative Societies in the State, while pointing out to the Model Code of Conduct put in place by the Election Commission of India.

(3.) It is the contention of the learned Senior Counsel Sri.M.R.Rajagopal, appearing for the petitioner in W.P.No.23677/2023 that while such a notification was issued by the State Government on 21/3/2024, it was made clear that the process of elections will be permitted to be continued from the stage when it was interrupted. However, when the State Government issued a notification on 5/6/2024, certain other conditions were imposed. Learned Senior Counsel pointed out to clause (3) of the notification and submits that the Co-operative Societies are now forced to take into consideration the co-operative year 2023-2024 and they are required to comply with all the provisions including Rule 13-D(2)(2-A) of the Rules, 1960, which would effectively postpone the elections by another six months.