Amul row: Gujarat HC reserves order on Chaudhary's plea against no-trust motion

Gujarat High Court today reserved order on Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), chairman, Vipul Chaudhary's petition challenging the no confidence motion contemplated by majority of members of the federation.

Chaudhary's lawyers alleged that no confidence motion was politically motivated and argued that there was no such provision (moving no-confidence motion) in the Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act or in the bye-laws of GCMMF. The federation and its members through their counsels claimed that it was an internal dispute between members of the body and the chairman had acted in a haste by filing the petition.

Chaudhary is facing the heat by a majority of board members over mismanagement in Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union, as well as for meeting Congress vice-chairman Rahul Gandhi with an eye on National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) top job. Mehsana Union is also headed by Vipul Chaudhary.

In a strong worded letter to Mehsana Union vice-chairman, GCMMF took on Mehsana Union over number of issues including  big loans availed by the union and subsequent interest burden, offering cattlefeed worth Rs  22.50 crore to Maharashtra farmers free of cost without taking the approval of union's board and selling milk powder to private players at lower rates while over looking the federation's advice.

The Mehsana Union also came under GCMMF's attack for constant decline in milk procurement by the union and setting up 9 lakh liters per day milk processing plant, the union went ahead with establishment of 30 lakh liters per day of milk packaging plant at Daruheda (Haryana) plant with an investment of Rs . 300 crore.

As many as 14 out of 17 board members of Rs  13,700 crore GCMMF had moved a no-confidence motion against Chaudhary and had called for a special meeting on October 26 to discuss no-trust motion. The High Court had stayed the scheduled meeting on October 25 after Chaudhary filed a petition challenging the no-confidence motion against him.

The stay was extended today by Justice A J Desai, hearing the case, till the final verdict on the issue.

During the arguments Chaudhray's lawyers argued that there was no provision of bringing no-confidence motion against the federation chairman in the Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act and in the bye-laws of GCMMF. They further argued that the move by other members was politically motivated.

"Because the members are associated with some political parties, they want to remove a democratically elected Chairman," Chaudhray's counsel had contended.

Countering the arguments made by Chaudhary, lawyers representing GCMMF members claimed that they had every right to call for a requisition meeting and said that this was an internal dispute and the court ought not to entertain Chaurdhary's petition.

They argued that GCMMF chairman had acted on mere apprehension that he would be removed from the post by the members. The members' lawyer further argued that they only wanted to discuss the issues which had led to distrust as the dispute was between the office bearers of the federation and its chairman.

The member have further contended that their right to manage the federation has been affected because of the stay on couple of meeting based on petitions filed by Chaudhary.

Four member unions from districts of Banaskantha, Ahmedabad, Bhavnagar and Panchmahal have approach the High Court against Chaudhary.