Plea against Coop Societies Ordinance adjourned

KOCHI: The Kerala High Court has adjourned the hearing on a petition challenging the Cooperative Societies Ordinance-2012  dissolving the director boards of district cooperative banks and appointing administrators to manage the affairs of banks. The case will come up for hearing on Tuesday. The petition was filed by the president of Kollam District Cooperative Bank P Rajagopalan Nair and two other members of the bank. The petitioners sought to quash the ordinance and issue a directive to the state government and other respondents to desist from dissolving the director board and appointing  administrators.When the petition came up for hearing on Monday, Justice P N Ravindran asked the government pleader to produce a copy of the ordinance on Tuesday.The petitioners contended that the ordinance was illegal and arbitrary. They also alleged that it was brought out with a mala fide intention to topple the existing director boards of the banks and put them under the control of the UDF government.“All the primary societies and urban cooperative banks have been given voting rights in the district cooperative banks. The new ordinance is against the High Court order upholding the previous LDF government’s decisions to allot voting rights to primary cooperative societies except agricultural credit societies and urban cooperative banks,” the petitioners submitted.They further submitted that they were elected to the directed board in 2010 and their term would end only on July 21, 2013. “Besides,  the ordinance has not been published in the gazette so far though it was approved by the Cabinet,” they said.