State told to form 4 panels with retd judges to resolve co-operative issues
After several bouts of litigations over illegal practices marring the elections to the co-operative societies in TN, the MHC on Tuesday directed the state to divide the co-operative societies into 4 zones and form 4 committees headed by retired High Court Judges with Deputy Registrars and Collectors of the respective districts as its members to receive the objections and remedy the situation.
By : migrator
Update: 2018-07-31 22:53 GMT
Chennai
The first bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice PT Asha passed the above order while dealing with a batch of over four hundred petitions seeking various directions including setting aside the elections held.
Stating that a detailed order will be passed in this regard, the bench said that the government on receipt of the order copy must form the above committees within two weeks. Thereafter, within seven days all the objections must be filed before the respective committees.
The committees must scrutinise all the objections raised before it and decide on them within three months, the bench said and noted that all elections held shall abide by the decision of the committees and in the event of any election being held invalid by the above committees, fresh elections shall be conducted as per the election rules.
The matter relates to the co-operative elections which were conducted recently in Tamil Nadu to various societies. In the above regard hundreds of petitions were filed before the High Court with various prayers including pleas to set-aside the elections.
It may be noted that the Tamil Nadu State Cooperatives Election Commission (TNSCEC) on March 5 had announced elections to 18,775 societies, including 18,435 primary cooperative societies that come under the state’s 15 departments. A four-phase election was planned. But as the process was in progress, several petitions were filed before the Madras High Court and its bench at Madurai.
The pleas had sought the court’s intervention to ensure free and fair election since TNSCEC had failed to follow due procedure in holding the polls. Majority of the complaints pertained to the members of the ruling party being selected and the commission was aiding without holding any election.
Visit news.dtnext.in to explore our interactive epaper!
Download the DT Next app for more exciting features!
Click here for iOS
Click here for Android