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Rajkot District Cooperative Bank Ltd. v. State of Gujarat

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 10392 of 2014)Decided 19 Nov 2014
Civil Appeal No. 10392 of 2014
Justice V. Gopala Gowda · Justice Adarsh Kumar Goel

Background

Several Gujarat cooperative societies challenged rules requiring electoral constituencies to be delimited before elections to their governing committees. Their bye-laws allowed different voting arrangements, including a single constituency with multiple seats. They argued that the Collector could not alter those arrangements without prior amendment of the bye-laws.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court dismissed the appeals and upheld the High Court's interpretation of Rules 3-A(8) and (9). For specified societies operating across more than one village, territorial constituencies had to correspond to the number of seats, excluding the two statutory reserved seats. The Collector had independent power to delimit those constituencies before publication of the voters' list, notwithstanding inconsistent bye-laws. Societies were obliged to bring their bye-laws into conformity, and failure to amend them could not disable the election rules. The Court directed elections after delimitation, prompt implementation and a compliance report within eight weeks.

Lesson Learnt

Members' voting arrangements under a society's bye-laws remain subject to applicable statutory election rules. A society cannot preserve an inconsistent multi-seat constituency simply by leaving its bye-laws unamended when the Collector has lawful delimitation powers.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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