HC stops upcoming phases of elections to co-op societies

Petitioner, R Sakkarapani, Oddanchatram, MLA, in his petition, stated that the State Election Commission in its notice on March 5 had announced that the election to cooperative societies would be conducted in several phases and Chief Minister, Edappadi K Palaniswami and Deputy Chief Minister O Panneerselvam were appointed the coordinators for the democratic process. 

The petition also stated that state ministers, AIADMK MPs and MLAs were appointed as district coordinators and all the MPs and MLAs used their powers to elect their party cadre as members of the cooperative societies. 

Also, the applications of members of opposition parties were rejected and in many places members of ruling parties were declared unopposed. 

The rules were not followed in the cooperative elections and officials in many districts were forced by the ruling party functionaries and cadre to act according to their wish, the petitioner alleged. 

An independent investigation should be instituted to bring out the truth and therefore urged the court to stay the ongoing elections for cooperative societies in the state. 

When the petition came up for hearing before a bench, comprising justices C T Selvam and AM Basheer Ahamed, Assistant Advocate General (AAG), Chellapandian, argued that the election process had commenced and elections in 142 cooperative societies were cancelled where complaints were raised against the elections. 

However, the bench directed the SEC to maintain status quo in the election of cooperative societies and directed the state election commissioner to file a detailed report in the court by Wednesday (April 11).