HC dismisses GCMMF chief's plea against no confidence motion

Single judge had allowed GCMMF board to implement no confidence motion against Vipul Chaudhary

The Gujarat High Court on Friday dismissed an appeal of incumbent Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) chairman Vipul Chaudhary challenging the implementation of confidence motion against him by majority of federation members.

A division bench of Justice R R Tripathi and Justice Mohinder Pal dismissed Chaudhary's appeal against a single judge's order passed earlier this week. The single judge had allowed the GCMMF board to implement no confidence motion against Chaudhary passed by as many as 13 out of 16 voting members in December last year.

The division bench upheld the single judge order and said that they did not feel the need to interfere with it.

After dismissal of the order, senior counsel Nirupam Nanavati appearing for Chaudhary requested for stay on the order for approaching Supreme Court, but the division bench rejected it.

Senior counsels S N Shelath and B S Patel appeared on behalf of GCMMF and other member unions of the federation.

Sources, close to Chaudhary said that he would be filing appeal in the Apex Court soon.

Meanwhile, in order to implement the no confidence motion the board of directors of the federation will have to write to the Anand district collector seeking fresh election of chairman of GCMMF.

"Based on the application of board of directors of GCMMF, the collector will call meeting as per the Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act and conduct election of chairman," said sources in the GCMMF.

While passing the no trust motion against Chaudhary the GCMMF members had alleged that they were suspicious of Chaudhary's functioning and suspected that his way of administration was not in the interest of the federation. They further held that the motion was needed to safeguard the interest of three million milk producers of Gujarat.

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

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

Besides this, Chaudhary is also facing charges of corruption from members of the Mehsana District Milk Producers Union Ltd (MDMPUL). The Gujarat High Court last month directed the state government to inquire the allegation of corruption against Chaudhary and his close aides in the Mehsana union while hearing a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Baldev Chaudhary and Mangal Patel, both members of the MDMPUL.

The state government last month submitted an inquiry report on the allegation of corruption against Chaudhary and his close aides.