Cooperatives poll only after members list correction: State in HC

CHENNAI: Tamil Nadu State Cooperative Societies Election Commission on Tuesday informed the Madras High Court that it will conduct the cooperatives societies’ elections after the irregularities in adding members to the societies are sorted out.

The commission made this submission before the first bench of Acting Chief Justice T Raja and Justice D Bharatha Chakravarthy. The bench was hearing a petition filed by KS Shanmugam of Salem district.

The petitioner sought direction to the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies Election Commission, Cooperation, Food and Consumers Protection Department and registrar of cooperative societies to conduct elections for the cooperatives societies only after verifying the proper members in consonance with the Tamil Nadu Cooperatives Societies Act, 1983.

The litigant prayed that only eligible members should be added to the societies and that the names of the deceased members and others should be deleted.

The state submitted that it had sent a communication to all the cooperative societies in the state to correct the members list and send the details of those corrections to the commission.

“If the elections are conducted without sorting out the issues in the members lists, it will not be free and fair. Therefore, the commission will not conduct the elections till the members lists are corrected and genuine lists are prepared. It will take six weeks to complete these correctional works,” the state informed.

Recording the submissions, the judges ordered notice to the respondents and adjourned the case by four weeks.