Nagpur :- In a significant development, the Nagpur Bench of the Bombay High Court, comprising Justices A.S. Chandurkar and Vrushali V Joshi, passed a landmark judgment in terming the order dated June 28, 2023, issued by the State of Maharashtra arbitrary. The said order directed the postponement of elections for all Cooperative Societies with more than 250 members across the state to be postponed after 30th September 2023. The said order thus affected more than 6500 co operative societies in the State.
The petitioner in the present matter is a Primary Teacher and member of the Zilla Parishad and State Government Employees’ Cooperative Society Limited, Bhandara. The petitioner’s counsel, Aakash Gupta, argued that the Society’s 5434 members were all salaried employees of the Zilla Parishad and the State Government, and as such did not fall under the category of farmers or farm laborers as specified in Section 73 CC of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960. Further that the order is absolutely blanket covering all the co operative societies across the State for the specious reason of possible rains. Considering the demography of a huge State like the State of Maharashtra only possibility of rains causing assumed inconvenience to the voters to cast vote on account of rain cannot be made uniformly applicable across all region of the State. Importantly all 5434 voters of the present society are all Zilla Parishad and State Government salaried employees and basically none of them are farmers or farm labours as are covered under Section 73(CC) of the M.C.S. Act, 1960 and therefore such blanket ban on election across various categories of societies in itself demonstrates the complete non-application of mind and arbitrary and illegal action of the State Govt.
The State Cooperative Election Authority, Maharashtra State, Pune, and the District Cooperative Election Officer and Deputy Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Bhandara, were the respondents in the case.
Taking into account the precedents set in cases at Aurangabad Bench, the Court concluded that the blanket order to postpone elections for all Cooperative Societies, irrespective of their nature or location, was arbitrary. The court ruled in favor of the petitioner and directed the continuation of the election process for the Zilla Parishad and State Government Employees’ Cooperative Society Limited from the stage where it had been previously stayed.
This judgment serves as a notable legal precedent concerning election postponement for Cooperative Societies and upholds the principles of fairness and reasonableness in election process and intervention of the State in the same.
Advocate Aakash Gupta appeared for the petitioner while Advocate Sangeeta Jachak APP appeared for the State. Advocate Ghate Represented the Election Authority and Advocate Raghorte the respondent Society from Bhandara.
