Chennai
The Petitioner A Janakiraman, member, Railway Employees Cooperative Credit Society Limited, submitted that section 44(2) of this Act prohibits member of the board to be eligible to be elected as the Chairperson or President of the Multi State Co-operative Society after he or she has held the office as such, during two consecutive terms, whether full or part.
But Kanniah prior to MSCSA coming into force was the Chairman of the Railway Employees Cooperative Credit Society Ltd and held the post till 2003. Again, in 2003, he was elected as Chairman of the society for a term of 5 years, which was his second term consecutively. But in 2008, he was elected as Vice-Chairman. During that period, the post of the Chairman was kept vacant deliberately so that, he can exercise the power of the Chairman by default, the petitioner said.
Again, after the cooling period, he was elected for the post of Chairman. As a result, Kanniah is continuously holding the post of the Chairman of the Society for more than 20 years in a blatant violation of section 44(2) of the Act both by letter and spirit, Janakiraman’s counsel submitted.
But the counsel appearing for the respondents contended that it is an admitted fact, even by the petitioner that Kanniah was not holding the post of Chairman for more than two consecutive terms.
His prayer itself discloses that Kanniah is alternatively holding the post of Chairman and vice-chairman. Hence, when the Act does not prohibit such action, the prayer is not maintainable
However, Justice G Jayachandran on citing the byelaws of the Society, said “Totally about 600 representatives are elected from total membership of nearly 68,000. These representatives of the Assembly in turn elect the Board of Directors. The Chairman of the society is elected by the elected Board of Directors. When the electoral roll of the Society being of such magnitude spreading across southern and part of Central states in India, the allegation that, the administration of the Society is centralised in the hands of Kanniah does not carry merit.”
“The spirit of the Act does not indicate that, a member of the society cannot hold any post after two full term as Chairman. The embargo is only for the post of Chairman and not for other posts. Therefore, changing the position from Chairmanship to any other post cannot be construed as subverting or circumventing the law,” the judge added.
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