In this blogpost, Sonal Srivastava, Student, Amity Law School, Lucknow, writes about what is a co-operative society how is it incorporated, number of members their term and the procedure of election in India.
Part IXB inserted by the Constitution 97th Amendment Act, 2011 talks about the “co-operative societies”. According to Article 243ZH(c) of the Indian Constitution “co-operative society” means a society registered or deemed to be registered under any law relating to co-operative societies for the time being in force in any state.
Incorporation of co-operative societies
According to Article 243ZI, the legislature of a state may in accordance with the provisions of this part, by law, make provisions with regard to formation, regulation and winding up of cooperative societies based on the principles of voluntary formation, democratic member- control, member economic participation and autonomous functioning.
Number, term of members of board, its office bearers and the manner of election
As per the provisions of Article 243Z that the board shall consist of as many members as the legislature of a state may define but it shall not exceed 21 members. Further, the Legislature of a state shall provide for the reservation of one seat for scheduled castes or tribes and two seats for women on the board of every co-operative society consisting of individual as members and having members from such class or category of persons. The term of office of a member shall be five years from the date of the election and the term of office bears shall be coterminous with the term of the board.
As per the provisions of Article 243ZK the election of the board shall be conducted before the expiry of the term of board so as to ensure that the newly elected members of the board assume office immediately on the expiry of the term of office of the members of the outgoing board and the supervision of the same shall be conducted by the body appointed by the state legislature.
Audit of accounts of co-operative societies-
According to Article 243ZM, the legislature of a state may, by law, make provisions with respect to the maintenance of accounts by the co-operative societies and the auditing of such accounts at least once in a year; the legislature shall also lay down the minimum qualification of the auditors and the auditing firms;
Such auditors or auditing firms shall be appointed from a panel approved by a State Government or authority authorised by the State government in this behalf
The accounts of the co-operative society shall be audited within six months from the close of the financial year and the audit report of the accounts shall be laid before the state legislature in accordance with the provisions of the law.
According to Article 243ZN, the general body meeting shall be convened within the period of six months from the close of the financial year
Right of a member to get information
According to Article 243ZO, the legislature may by law provide for access to every member the information, book of accounts, etc. of a co-operative society; it shall also make provisions for the members to attend meetings and for co-operative education and training for its members.
Returns
According to Article 243ZP, every cooperative society shall file returns, within six months of the close of every financial year, to the authority designated by the state government including the following matters such as annual reports of its activities; its audited statement of accounts; plan for surplus disposal as approved by the general body of the co-operative society, list of amendments to the bye-laws of the co-operative society, declaration regarding holding of its general annual body meeting and any other information required by the registrar.
Offences and Penalties
According to Article 243ZQ, the legislature of a state shall make provisions for the offences and imposition of penalties for the same. Clause 2 of the said article lays down various offences covered under this part.
Conclusion
The amendment has brought the co-operative societies into the realm of the constitution which means that any changes to be made in the part shall require amendment through special majority thereby securing the position of co-operative societies. The exhaustive provisions cover varied aspects of the incorporation, returns, offences, etc. of the co-operative societies making the job easier for its officers to carry out their work.
