RANJITA KAHALI Vs. STATE OF ORISSA & OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this bunch of writ petitions the petitioners, office bearers of different Co -operative Societies, have assailed the vires of the Orissa Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Act, 2011(hereinafter referred to as "the Amendment Act" for brevity). They specifically assailed the provisions of Section 2(g)(i) and 2(g)(ii) of Section 28 of the Amendment Act and the administrative action pursuant thereto whereby the Registrar, Co -operative Societies, opposite party no.2, has nominated persons other than the elected members to constitute the Managing Committee of the respective Co -operative Societies.

(2.) IT is not disputed that there are about seven thousand Co -operative Societies in the whole of State of Orissa. Various Co -operative Societies were managed by the elected members and some cases the election has been held very recently. In such backdrop the Orissa State Legislative Assembly passed the Amendment Act whereby among other things it sought to amend the provision of reservation for various backward communities. By virtue of such an amendment, the management committees of all societies were dissolved from the date of the notification of such amendment and the management vested with the Registrar of the Co -operative Society. In order to understand the various amending provision it is necessary to look into the various amendment that has been carried out by virtue of the Amendment Act. The Orissa Co -operative Societies Act, 1962 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act" for brevity) at various point of time, has been amended by the legislative assembly prior to the present Amendment Act. As the matters stood, Section 16 of the Act provided for the persons who may become members of a Co -operative Society. Sub -section (1) provided for the membership of a Co -operative Society. Clause (b) provided no person shall be admitted as member of a Society other than a primary society, except the following, namely:

(3.) PRIOR to the amendment Section 20 read as follows: