Guj govt halts appointing custodians in coop societies

Gujarat government today said it has decided to wait for Supreme Court's verdict with regard to appointment of custodians in cooperative societies and banks in the state that are functioning without holding elections of management committees within stipulated time frame.
The state government had last month appointed custodians in Mehsana District Central Co-operative bank and Dudhsagar Dairy in Mehsana, which were among 100-odd co-operative institutions that had not conducted elections of respective management committees in the stipulated five-year term.
These appointments were made as per the new provisions of Gujarat Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill 2015, which was recently passed in the Assembly and approved by Governor O P Kohli.

Under the Act, the government is now empowered to appoint custodians in such societies to initiate the process of election.
However, managing committees of both the institutions approached the Gujarat High Court against the appointment of custodians.
Gujarat government spokesperson Nitin Patel today said the Court recently revoked the appointment of custodian in Mehsana District bank.

The state government then approached Supreme Court to challenge the order of High Court.
"Supreme Court today gave an interim order in our favour and approved the appointment of custodian and set aside the High Court order. Further hearing will be held in July by the apex court," said Patel.

Though the Supreme Court gave its order in favour of Gujarat government, Patel said that the government has now decided to wait for the final verdict before going ahead in appointing custodians in other 100 co-operative institutions.
"This is just an interim order, as final verdict is yet to come. There is no point in appointing custodians in the remaining institutions as they may also file petitions and stall the process. Thus, we will go slow in this regard till a final and abiding order comes from Supreme Court," said Patel.