V V SAMUEL Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Petitioners 1 and 2 are the elected members of the Managing Committee of Vechoochira Ex-servicemen Multipurpose Co-operative Colony Ltd. No. 3171 (for short, 'the Society') and petitioner No. 3 is a member of the Society. They have challenged Exts. P-8 and P-9, by which the Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Pathanamthitta (2nd respondent herein) has, in exercise of the powers under sub-section (5) of Section 12 of the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act, 1969 (for short, 'the Act'), certified and registered clause 15(1) of the bye-laws of the Society to the effect that there shall be 9 members in the Committee and 6 of them shall be elected from among the members for a period of three years and 3 of them shall be the District Collector, Pathanamthitta, Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Pathanamthitta and the Secretary, Amalgamated Fund, Thiruvananthapuram and they shall be the ex-officio members. The District Collector shall be the President of the Society. This amendment was directed to be carried out in spite of the fact that the general body of the Society, in its meeting held on 12-10-1994, rejected the proposed amendment. The Society was formed by the allottees of 1500 acres of forest land, who served the Travancore-Cochin Armed Forces and the Indian Army. The allotment was made on condition that the allottees shall cultivate the land and settle down in the land allotted to them. Membership to the Society is open only to Ex-servicemen, who have settled down there. Originally, the Managing Committee of the Society consisted of five elected members from the general body and six official members.

(2.) By Kerala Co-operative Societies Amendment Act, 1987 (Act 19/1987), Section 31 was amended whereby nomination of official members to the managing committee of an ordinary Co-operative Society was not made compulsory. Thereafter, the Managing Committee was superseded as per the order dated 21-4-1988 of the Registrar and ultimately an administrative committee was appointed. The Society submitted an application for registration of the amendment of the bye-laws in the light of the amended provisions of Section 31 of the Act. By the proposed amendment to clause 15(1) of the bye-laws, nomination of official members was dispensed with. But, the Registrar of Co-operative Societies did not approve this amendment. The action of the Registrar in refusing to approve the amendment was challenged by the Society in O.P. No. 124 of 1990. After considering the various aspects of Sections 12(5), 28 and 31 of the Act, the learned single Judge observed as follows, in paragraph 16 of the Judgment (Ext. P-3) :

(3.) It is submitted by the learned Government Pleader, on behalf of the respondents, that the Joint Registrar insisted that three Government officers should be nominated as ex-officio members of the Managing Committee only because of the direction in paragraph 16 of the judgment of the learned single Judge in O.P. 124/90. In the counter-affidavit, it is also stated that Government control over the Society is necessary for the purpose of improving the services rendered by it.