Madras HC directs the State to respond over term of cooperative societies

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court has directed the State to respond to whether the term of a cooperative society commences from the day of the declaration of members election results or it starts from the day of the first meeting of the society.

A petitioner P Chinnasamy moved the Madras High Court (MHC) seeking to set aside the single judge order regarding the commencement of the term of Sekkarapatti primary agricultural co-operative credit society.

The case was heard by the first division bench of the MHC comprising Chief Justice S V Gangapurwala and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy.

The counsel appeared for the petitioner contended that after the date of election of office bearers of the society, the term of the society members will commence.

In this present case, the first meeting of the Sekkarapatti co-operative society commenced in 2019, as the term of the society members is 5 years, it will expire in 2024.

However, the counsel for the State submitted that as the election results for the society declared in 2018 the term of the members will expire in 2023.

After the submission, the bench directed the State to respond over the commencement of the society's term.

The State appointed new office bearers for the cooperative societies as the societies term ended in 2023.

A batch of petitioners, who are the presidents of various cooperative societies moved the MHC to seeking to ban the State from dissolving or prematurely terminating the tenure of their post and from interfering with the democratically elected board of management in co-operative society.

The petitioners contended that they were elected as presidents on June 10, 2019, and they have a term till 2024.

However, the single judge inclined to hold that the term of office shall commence only from the date of election and dismissed the petitioner's petition.