Orissa High Court

Cuttack, Sept. 30: The state government’s alleged bid to run four central cooperatives by replacing elected bodies with nominated representatives from the BJD suffered a setback today. The high court today restrained nominated members from running the four cooperatives.

The government had superseded the bodies on September 24 following enforcement of the Orissa Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Act, 2011, for which the bill was passed during the last monsoon session of the Assembly. It had issued similar orders for various cooperative societies in the state.

The interim order was issued on four separate petitions filed by elected presidents of the central cooperative banks of Sundargarh, Keonjhar, Sambalpur and Mayurbhanj. The petitioners challenged the constitutional validity of the Orissa Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Act, 2011, and the order of the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Orissa, which nominated the president and four directors each for running the four central cooperative banks.

Their counsel Pitambar Acharya alleged before the court that the registrar “had acted mechanically in a hot-haste manner by sheer abuse of power vested in him to accommodate and rehabilitate some disgruntled and weary politicians belonging to Biju Janata Dal who were either defeated in the last cooperative elections or were deprived of party tickets”.

“The action of the registrar is undemocratic and autocratic which cuts at the root of the sacrosanct provisions enshrined in the Constitution of India. Besides, the action goes against the cooperative principle which postulates democratic management of the cooperative bodies,” Acharya said.

The two-judge bench of Justice B.P. Das and Justice S.K. Mishra ordered: “The elected existing board of managements shall continue to act as the interim committee for the central cooperative banks of Sundargarh, Keonjhar and Sambalpur. The Mayurbhanj Central Cooperative Bank shall be managed by the registrar.”

The high court had on Wednesday issued an order restraining a nominated committee from running the Cuttack Urban Cooperative Bank in place of an elected board of directors.

The Orissa Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Act, 2011, notified on September 24, provides for five-year tenure of bodies comprising primary, central and apex society instead of four years.

The Act provides for uniform and proportional representation of scheduled caste, scheduled tribe and other backward class (including socially and educationally backward classes) and women to the committees of the societies proportionate to their number in society.

By virtue of the amendment, all the elected cooperative bodies which exist at present are to be de-reserved and the ground for such dissolution is lack of caste-based proportional representation.