The main legal point established in the judgment is the requirement to comply with the provisions of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act and the 97th Amendment, particularly regarding the admission of individual members and the reservation of seats for Scheduled Castes and women in the election of committee members.

Rakesh Kumar Jain, J.

The petitioner has challenged the election programme, published in the newspaper 'Jagbani' on 9.10.2015, issued by the Election Manager of the Batala Cooperative Sugar Mills Limited, Batala [for short 'the Society'].

2. It is submitted that the present membership of the sugar mill comprises 300 societies and 28411 individuals. It is further submitted that total seven Directors are to be elected out of which five Directors have to be elected from individual zone and two from the societies zone.

3. Learned counsel for the petitioner has submitted that as per Section 15-A of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961 (for short the Act), no individual shall be admitted as member of the central or apex society but it can be exempted by the Registrar by a general or special order.

Section 15-A of the Act is reproduced as under: -

"15-A. Restrictions on individuals in becoming members of certain co-operative societies.- (1)- No individual shall be admitted as member of a central or apex society unless such a society has been exempted by the registrar in this behalf, by a general or special order.

(2) The Central and apex societies having individuals as members on the date of commencement of the Punjab Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Act 1969 shall retire the shares of such individuals within a period of three years of such commencement in the prescribed manner.

EXPLANATION - For the purpose of this section, Section 26, Section 26B and Section 84-A.

(a) "primary society" means a cooperative society whose membership consists exclusively of individuals;

(b) "central society means a cooperative society whose membership includes primary societies;

(c) "apex society" means a cooperative society whose membership includes central societies."

4. It is submitted that the Society was given exemption by the Registrar for allowing the individuals also member and on account of that as many as 28411 individual became members besides 300 societies as members. Section 26 of the Act deals with the procedure for election and nomination of members of the Committee. Section 26(1) of the Act, read as under: -

"The members of the Committee of a cooperative society shall be elected in the manner prescribed & no person shall be so elected unless he is a share holder of the society."

5. Section 26(1) was amended by the State Government in terms of the 97th amendment in the Constitution and the said amendment read as: -

"26(1) The members of the Committee of a co-operative society shall be elected in the manner prescribed & no person shall be so elected unless he is a share holder of the society.

Provided that the maximum number of members of the committee of a co-operative society shall not exceed twenty one;

Provided further that there shall be reservation of one seat for the scheduled castes and two seats for women on the committee of every co-operative society consisting of individuals as members and having members from such class or category of persons."

6. Pursuant to this amendment, the election programme was issued by the respondents in which it was provided that "the elections of seven directors of the Board of Directors of the Batala Co-operative Sugar Mills Ltd., Batala, District Gurdaspur shall be as per the election programme given for electing five Directors out of individual zones and two directors from the member societies zone".

7. The grievance of the petitioner is that the respondents have not cared to comply with second proviso to Section 26(1) of the Act as amended as they have reserved two seats for women and one for the Scheduled Castes. This fact is admitted that no reservation is made for the Scheduled Castes and women for the post of Director from the individual zone.

8. Learned counsel for the respondents has submitted that the second proviso to Section 26(1) of the Act do not apply to the central society and it applies only to the primary society of which the individuals are the members. It is thus submitted that th