SC frames guidelines on removal of members from co-op society

The Supreme Court today laid down a slew of guidelines on removal of an office bearer in a cooperative society including that a motion of no confidence against a person "shall" be moved only after two years of his assuming the office.
The guidelines were issued in a verdict by which the apex court dismissed an appeal of Vipulbhai M Chaudhary, former chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation that markets its products under the Amul brand, against his ouster from the office following the passage of no confidence motion in the society.
The bench comprising Justices A R Dave and Kurian Joseph upheld the decision of the Gujarat High Court and issued guidelines to regulate removal of elected members from cooperative societies as the states have not made changes in their laws in pursuance to Constitutional amendment.

"Now that this Court has declared the law regarding the democratic set up of a cooperative society and that it is permissible to remove an elected office bearer through motion of no confidence, and since in many States, the relevant statutes have not carried out the required statutory changes in terms of the constitutional mandate, we feel it just and necessary to lay down certain guidelines," the bench said.
"Having regard to the set up in local self-governments prevailing in many of the States as above, we direct that in the case of cooperative societies registered under any Central or State law, a motion of no confidence against an office bearer shall be moved only after two years of his assumption of office," one of the guidelines said.

In case, the motion of no confidence gets defeated, second motion cannot be introduced within a year, it said adding that such motions "shall be moved only in case there is a request from one-third of the elected members of the Board of Governors/Managing Committee of the cooperative society concerned".
The no confidence motion can be put to vote only when it is supported by more than fifty per cent of elected members, it said.