IMPORTANT POINTS
• Even if the byelaws have a particular enumeration of the constituencies, the Election Commission certainly ought to have taken note of the impact of Subsection(C) of the Section 28 of the KCS Act and ought to have axiomatically provided for the statutory constituency as per its mandate.
• Even if the stipulations in the bye-laws are to the contrary or silent on this, the provisions of Subsection( IC) of Section 28 will have to be applied and a reservation for members with a deposit of Rs.10,000/- and above will have to be made.

Among the provisions for the election and appointment of a Managing Committee of a Society in Section 28 of the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act ('KCS Act' for short), is also a stipulation that one seat must be reserved for members having a deposit of Rs.10,000/- and above. It is this provision on which the controversies in this case revolves.

2. As I have indicated above, since the answers to be given by this Court on the various contentions of the parties are edificed on the aforesaid stipulation contained in sub clause (IC) of Section 28 of the KCS Act, I deem it appropriate to extract the same as under.

“[(IC) Notwithstanding anything contained in the bye-laws of a Primary Credit Society or an Urban Co-operative Society, one seat in the committee of each such Society shall be reserved for the members having a deposit of ten thousand rupees and above]”

3. As is ineluctable from the above extracted provision, the mandate of the KCS Act is that whatever be the stipulations in the bye-laws of a Society, being a Primary Credit Society or an Urban Co-operative Bank, one seat in its Managing Committee shall be reserved for members having a deposit of Rs.10,000/- and above. It is without doubt that the provisions of the Act would certainly over-ride conflicting provisions in the bye-laws and this is more so in the case of this Sub-section because, it itself provides for. Hence, whatever be the stipulations in the bye-laws, it becomes necessary to be ensured that one seat in the Managing Committee of the Societies enumerated therein, shall be reserved for members having a deposit of Rs.10,000/- and above.

4. That being so, the bye-laws with respect to the fifth respondent-Keezhallur Service Cooperative Bank Ltd. No.F1455 (hereinafter referred to as it 'Society' for short), provides that two seats in the Managing Committee shall be reserved for members having a deposit of Rs.50,000/- and above, with a further condition that they are without any other liability. The Kerala Co-operative Election Commission, however, while issuing Ext.P1 election notification to the Managing Committee of the said Bank, fixed the various constituencies, of which category B was shown as two seats for members having a deposit of Rs.10,000/- and above. The petitioner, who is the present President of the Society, asserts that this constituency in Ext.P1 notification is contrary to the bye-laws and therefore, that this Court set aside the notification on that short ground.

5. I have heard Sri. K.Ramakumar, the learned Senior Counsel, assisted by Sri.S.M.Prasanth, learned counsel for the petitioner; Sri.Ramesh Chander, learned Senior Counsel, assisted by Sri.Bijoy Joseph, learned counsel appearing for the fifth respondent Society; Sri.R.Lakshmi Narayan, learned standing counsel for the second respondent-State Co-operative Election Commission and Smt.C.S.Sheeja, learned Senior Government Pleader appearing on behalf of the State of Kerala and the other official respondents.

6. Sri.K.Ramakumar, the learned Senior Counsel, started his submissions by drawing my attention to the provisions of the Constitution of India with respect to the conduct of elections to Co-operative Societies, as are ingrained in Article 243ZA, then showing me Section 13A of the KCS Act which mandates that every Society shall make its bye-laws consistent with the provisions of the said Act and Rules and that no provision in such bye-laws can be contrary to the statutory mandate. The learned Senior Counsel, thereafter, read me the provisions of Rule 35A to assert that elections can be conducted by the State Election Commission only in the manner as is postulated therein and then proceeded to contend that under sub rule (3) thereof, the area or constituencies have to be specified by the Election Commission, in the election notification, solely in terms of the bye-laws.

7. The learned Senior Counsel thus asserted that when the bye-laws provided that two seats shall be reserved for members