HC paves way for Ex-Amul chief Vipul Chaudhary to contest poll

Ahmedabad

In a relief to former chairman of Amul Dairy Vipul Chaudhary, the Gujarat High Court today quashed an order of the Registrar of Cooperatives which had barred him from contesting elections at the cooperative bodies in the state for three years.

Justice C L Soni set aside the order of M A Narmawala, the Registrar of Cooperative, who had in March barred Chaudhary, then the chairman of Mehsana Milk Producing Cooperative Federation (also known as Dudhsagar Dairy) from contest elections.

The HC said today that the Registrar’s order, passed under Gujarat Cooperative Society Act, removing Chaudhary and prohibiting him from contesting election for three years, was illegal.

Chaudhary’s lawyer P S Champaneri said the Registrar cannot pass order to bar his client from contesting elections, as the sections mentioned in the order only speak about ouster from MMPCF.

In January this year, Narmawala had issued notice to Chaudhary seeking an explanation on the allegations of irregularities in MMPCF. It was alleged that he had supplied cattle feed to Maharashtra which caused a loss of crores of rupees to the Dairy.

In December 2013, Chaudhary had been ousted from the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), which markets its product under Amul brand, after a no-confidence motion was passed against him for alleged mismanagement.

PTI