Latest News | HC Quashes Order Suspending Co-op Society Office-bearers

Chennai, Aug 10 (PTI): The Madras High Court on Tuesday set aside the orders of the Registrar of Co-operative Societies suspending two elected office-bearers from service for alleged irregularities.

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Justice N Anand Venkatesh quashed the orders dated June 1 this year of the Registrar of Co-Operative Societies (Housing) in Vepery, while allowing two writ petitions from D Krishnamoorthy, president and S R Ravi, vice-president of the Perambur Co-Operative Society, today.

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Among other things, the petitioner's senior counsel alleged malafide and political vendetta. The suspension order is nothing but 'his master's voice' of the present political disposition, he added.

Though the judge pointed out that in this case things had moved swiftly from May 20 to June 6 and by the time an inquiry officer was appointed, the impugned proceedings suspending the petitioners came to be issued, however, observed that given the nature of the allegations and denials it would be treading a slippery slope if this court was to return a finding merely based on the assertions made by the petitioners and the same being denied by the other parties.

The proper course, therefore, would be to examine the impugned order and to see if the jurisdictional requirements for triggering Section 76-A of the TN Co-Operative Societies Act, 1983, have been met, the judge said.

A mere prima facie case will not enable the Registrar to invoke Section 76-A. The jurisdictional requirement of this section, thus, has not been met in this case. The Registrar had invoked this section without jurisdiction, the judge said and set aside the suspension orders.

The judge, however, made it clear that the inquiry under Sec 81 of the Act can go on. A report shall be submitted by the inquiry officer within eight weeks, the judge said and added that further action on the report shall proceed strictly in accordance with law.

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)