The impugned resolution restricting the area of operation and membership of the cooperative society was not in consonance with the Jharkhand Co-operative Society Act, 1935, and its up-to-date amendments and rules. The cooperative societies are not bound to change the area of operation or membership if the existing members do not agree as per the provisions of existing by-laws read with Rule 37 of the Jharkhand Co-operative Rules 1959.

1. Heard Mr. V.P. Singh, Sr. Advocate appearing on behalf of the petitioners assisted by Mr. Rajesh Lala, Advocate.

2. Heard Mrs. Chandra Prabha, S.C. IV appearing on behalf of the respondent-State.

3. This writ petition has been filed for the following reliefs:-

(i) To quash the Resolution as contained in Memo No. 75/Ranchi dated 09.01.2013 issued by the Respondent No. 2 whereby and whereunder, pursuant to the decision of the Cabinet of Ministers of the State of Jharkhand dated 20.12.2012, re-organisaiton of PACS has been, illegally, arbitrarily autocratically & without jurisdiction, directed by reducing the size of the existing PACS in the State of Jharkhand [including Petitioners] to the Grampanchayat level without there being any provision to that effect in the Jharkhand Co-operative Societies Act, 1935, in utter violation of the Principle of Natural Justice and it would adversely affect the economics viability of the PACS.

(ii) The Hon’ble Court may graciously be pleased to quash the annexure impugned as Annexure-2, and Annexure-3 to the Rejoinder Affidavit filed by the petitioner in this writ petition and also be pleased to set aside all action taken by the State Government and its officers and instrumentalities pursuant to the impugned Annexure-1 of the writ petition.

4. Counsel for the petitioners at the out set submit that the petitioners are challenging only clause 6(i) of the impugned resolution dated 09.01.2013 issued by the state of Jharkhand which reads as follows:-

orZeku Lo:i esa ySEil@iSDl vius mn~ns';ksa dh 'kr&izfr'kr iwfrZ djus esa lQy ugha ik jgs gSaA vr,o d`"kdksa dks izHkkoh <ax ls ykHk igqWapkus ,oa lgdkfjrk ds ek/;e ls d`f"k ,oa d`"kdksa ds fodkl ds fy, etcwr bdkbZ ds :i esa izR;sd iapk;r esa iSDl@ySEil dks LFkkfir djus dk fu.kZ; fy;k x;k gS] ftlds vkyksd esa fuEukafdr dkjZokbZ dh tk;sxhA

¼1½ orZeku xfBr ySEil@iSDl ds dk;Z{ks= dks muds eq[;ky; ds vk/kkj ij mDr iapk;r esa lhfer djus rFkk bl ifjizs{; esa lacaf/kr iapk;r ek= ds d`"kd lnL;ksa rd lnL;rk lhfer j[kukA

5. Counsel for the petitioners submits that the petitioners are short term co-operative credit society registered under the Jharkhand Co-operative Societies Act, 1935 are functioning within their respective area of operation in the district of Dhanbad which includes more than one panchyats. The petitioners are Primary Agricultural Credit Co-operative Societies (PACS).

6. Counsel for the petitioners by referring to the Annexure-1 to the writ petition submits that a resolution has been passed by the respondent-state as contained in memo no. 75 dated 09.01.2013 and as per clause 6(i) of the resolution, the area of operation and membership of Primary Agricultural Cooperative Credit Society as well as Large Area Multiple Credit Co-operative Society (hereinafter referred as PACS and LAMPS respectively) have been affected.

7. Pursuant to this resolution, the area of operation of the petitioners would be altered and restricted to only one Panchayat and person living in that Panchayat will only be entitled to become a member of the co-operative society of the petitioners.

8. He further submits that the co-operative society is guided by the provisions of the Jharkhand co-operative societies Act 1935 and bye- laws are approved by the competent authority i.e. Registrar of the co-operative societies who is an authority under the said Act. He submits that the area of operation as well as the membership is also mentioned in bye- laws of the petitioner co-operative societies.

9. The counsel further submits that aforesaid clause 6(i) of impugned memo no 75 dated 09.01.2013 (Annexure-1) amounts to forcing the petitioners to change the bye-laws of their co-operative society itself and confine the petitioners to only one panchayat and forcibly exclude those persons who are members of the petitioner but are from various other panchayats and forcibly include those persons who are not members but belong to a particular panchayat.

10. He further submits that pursuant to