The appointment of an Administrator for a cooperative society cannot extend beyond one year without elections, infringing on statutory governance mandates.

JUDGMENT :

B. Mohanty, J.

1. This writ petition has been filed by the petitioner with prayer to quash order No.9253 dated 01.05.2020 under Annexure-3 issued by the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Odisha (opposite party No.2) appointing opposite partyNo.3 to manage the affairs of Sundargarh District Central Co-operative Bank Ltd. for short, “the Bank” and with a further prayer to direct opposite party Nos.1 to 4 to complete the process of election in respect of Committee of “the Bank” and Primary Agricultural Co-operative Societies affiliated to it in the district of Sundargarh within a stipulate time.

2. The case of the petitioner is that, he is an Ex-President of “the Bank” and a member of Large-sized Adivasi Multipurpose Co-operative Societies (LAMPCS) at Karamadihi in the district of Sundargarh. The petitioner in the capacity of member of the above noted LAMPCS was elected to the Committee of “the Bank”. The tenure of Committee of which the petitioner was the President came to an end on 30.04.2020. Instead of holding election to constitute the new Committee, the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Odisha passed the impugned order dated 01.05.2020 under Annexure-3 appointing the Collector & District Magistrate, Sundargarh as Administrator of “the Bank” to manage the affairs of the said bank in exercise of powers under Sub-Section (1) of Section 32 of Odisha Cooperative Societies Act, 1962, for short, “the Act”. It is the case of the petitioner that in the background of the language used in of “the Act”, the Collector of the district cannot remain in charge of the management. His further case is that since the impugned order under Annexure-3 is legally unsustainable, the authorities should immediately hold elections to the Committee. Accordingly, the present writ petition has been filed with the above noted prayers.

3. The opposite party Nos.1 & 2 have filed their counter affidavit on 08.01.2021 taking stand that the impugned order has been passed properly taking into account the Explanation appended to Sub-Section-1 of Section 32 of “the Act” and accordingly, the management consequent upon supersession stood vested with the Registrar, who in turn has appointed the Collector of the district as Administrator in consonance with the provisions of “the Act” and the same cannot be faulted. The case of opposite party No.1 in its affidavit dated 09.08.2021 is that, vide notification dated 01.08.2017 under Annexure-B/1, the Government of Odisha in Cooperation Department in exercise of the powers conferred by Sub-Section (1) of Section 3 of “the Act” read with Rule-5 of the Odisha Cooperative Societies Rules, 1965, for short “the Rules” have appointed the Collectors of all the revenue district of the State as Additional Registrars of Co- operative Societies to assist the Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Odisha and as per Section 2(i) of “the Act”, the Registrar has been defined to mean the person appointed to perform the functions of the Registrar of Co-operative Societies under this Act, and includes any person appointed to assist the Registrar when exercising all or any of the powers of the Registrar. Further, it is the case of the State that all the Additional Registrars have been conferred with powers of Registrar under Sections 6 , 7, 8, 10(2), 12, 14, 14-A, 16(2-a) 17, 28, 30, 30A, 32, 33, 35(3), 59(1), 63, 64, 65, 66, 68, 70, 72, 73, 75, 76, 77, 90, 102 to 105, 106 (1)(b), 108, 114, 116(3), 120, 123-A(2), 128(3) of “the Act” by the State Government in the Co- operation Department in exercise of powers under Sub- Sec