The main legal point established in the judgment is that Section 28(8) of the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act only pertains to the right to attend general body meetings and be elected as a member of the committee of the Regional Cooperative Milk Producers Union, and does not restrict the voting rights of member societies governed by administrators.

JUDGMENT :

Anu Sivaraman, J.

1. These appeals arise from a common judgment dated 15.6.2023 of a learned single Judge in a batch of 10 writ petitions arising in connection with the election to the Managing Committee of the Thiruvananthapuram Regional Milk Producers Union, which is a central society registered under the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act and Rules. An earlier common judgment allowing W.P.(C).Nos.1673 & 1679 of 2023 dated 10.04.2023 is also under challenge.

2. The election to the Managing Committee of the Thiruvananthapuram Regional Milk Producers Union, a Central society, was notified to be held on 09.04.2022. The preliminary voters’ list was published on 05.03.2022. Objections were to be submitted on or before 11.03.2022 and to be considered on 14.03.2022. It is contended that out of the 978 societies included in the preliminary voters’ list, 58 societies were under the administration of an administrator/administrative committee and 23 member societies were admitted/affiliated by the Administrator/Administrative Committee. The petitioners contended that the 58 member societies which were under the administration of an Administrator/Administrative Committee were ineligible to sent their members to participate in the election. It was further contended that 23 member societies, who were included as members by the Administrator/Administrative Committee were also not entitled to vote. The contention was on the basis of Section 28(8) of the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act, which reads as follows:-

“(8) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or the rules made there under or the bye-laws of a Regional Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union or in any other law, judgment or Decree or Orders of any court or Tribunal, for the time being in force, the delegate of the member Anand Pattern Milk Cooperative Society to attend the general body meetings and to contest the elections to the managing committee of the Regional Co-operative Milk Producers’ Union shall be the President of member Anand Pattern Milk Co-operative Societies only.”

3. Reliance was also placed on the decision of the Apex Court in Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies v. T.A. Kuttappan [2000 (2) KLT 480 (SC)] to contend that member societies admitted while the administrative committee was in power are not eligible to vote. The final voters’ list was published on 16.03.2022 including 58 member societies under the Administrator/Administrative Committees. 11 APCOS, which were found to have “deemed affiliation” under Section 8A(4) of the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act were found entitled to be included while 12 of the APCOS which were given affiliation by the administrative committee within 60 days from the date of election were deleted from the list. The final list contained 966 voters. This voters’ list was under challenge in the writ petitions.

4. On 23.03.2022, an interim order was passed directing that the votes cast by delegates of societies under the control of the administrators shall be kept in a separate box and counted separately. The declaration of result was also permitted. The matter was taken in appeal and by order dated 08.04.2022 in W.A.No.413/2022, stayed the declaration of results and directed that the results would be declared only after obtaining orders from this Court. The writ appeal was later disposed of by judgment dated 02.06.2022 requiring the parties to move for an early hearing of the writ petition. Thereafter, the pending writ petitions were heard on merits and the common judgment dated 15.6.2023 was rendered which is under challenge herein.

5. In the meanwhile, W.P.(C).Nos.1673 of 2023 and 1679 of 2023 were filed by candidates who had contested the elections and by judgment dated 10.4.2023, the returning officer was directed to declare the petitioner in W.P.(C).No.1673 of 2023 elected to the Managing Committee of the Union. The said common judgment is also under challenge.

6. The learned single Judge had framed four issues to be