New Delhi

The Supreme Court today laid down a slew of guidelines on removal of an office bearer in a cooperative society including that a motion of no confidence against a person “shall” be moved only after two years of his assuming the office.

The guidelines were issued in a verdict by which the apex court dismissed an appeal of Vipulbhai M Chaudhary, former chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation that markets its products under the Amul brand, against his ouster from the office following the passage of no confidence motion in the society.

The bench comprising Justices A R Dave and Kurian Joseph upheld the decision of the Gujarat High Court and issued guidelines to regulate removal of elected members from cooperative societies as the states have not made changes in their laws in pursuance to Constitutional amendment.

“Now that this Court has declared the law regarding the democratic set up of a cooperative society and that it is permissible to remove an elected office bearer through motion of no confidence, and since in many States, the relevant statutes have not carried out the required statutory changes in terms of the constitutional mandate, we feel it just and necessary to lay down certain guidelines,” the bench said.

“Having regard to the set up in local self-governments prevailing in many of the States as above, we direct that in the case of cooperative societies registered under any Central or State law, a motion of no confidence against an office bearer shall be moved only after two years of his assumption of office,” one of the guidelines said.

In case, the motion of no confidence gets defeated, second motion cannot be introduced within a year, it said adding that such motions “shall be moved only in case there is a request from one-third of the elected members of the Board of Governors/Managing Committee of the cooperative society concerned”.

The no confidence motion can be put to vote only when it is supported by more than fifty per cent of elected members, it said.

The bench, which referred to various local laws in which necessary amendments have not been carried out so far, however, gave liberty to state governments to modify them in accordance with the guidelines.

The bench, in its 41-page judgement, noted that the 97th Constitutional Amendment paved the way for democratic functioning of cooperative societies.

“The National Policy on Cooperatives announced in March 2002 has recognized democracy, equality, equity and solidarity as values of cooperatives. Cooperative society has been declared as a democratic institution. Democratic principles have all through been recognized as one of the cooperative principles though the constitutional affirmation of those principles came only in 2012,” it said.

The bench rejected the contention of senior advocate Kapil Sibal that the Gujarat legislation did not contain the provision of no confidence and hence Chaudhary cannot be removed from the cooperative society.

“Once cooperative society is conferred a constitutional status, it should rise to the constitutional aspirations as a democratic institution. So, it is for respective legislative bodies to ensure that there is democratic functioning. When the constitution is eloquent, the laws made thereunder cannot be silent.

“If the statute is silent or imprecise on the requirements under the Constitution, it is for the court to read the constitutional mandate into the provisions concerned and declare it accordingly,” the bench said.

“In the background of the constitutional mandate, the question is not what the statute does say but what the statute must say. If the Act or the Rules or the Bye-laws do not say what they should say in terms of the Constitution, it is the duty of the court to read the constitutional spirit and concept into the Acts,” it said.

Earlier, Chaudhary had moved the apex court against the High Court verdict alleging that he was voted out within days of attending a meeting in which Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi was also there.

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