CAV JUDGMENT

(Per : HONOURABLE MR. JUSTICE MOHIT S. SHAH)

This appeal under Clause 15 of the Letters Patent is directed against the judgment dated 26.9.2008 of the learned Single Judge, dismissing the Special Civil Application following the decision dated 4/6.09.2008 of another learned Single Judge in Special Civil Application No.1870 of 2006 and allied matters. Since the LPA filed against the said decision dated 4/6.09.2008 filed earlier has already been withdrawn, this appeal is essentially directed against the reasoning of the learned Single Judge in the decision dated 4/6.09.2008, as adopted in the order dated 26.9.2008 under appeal. 2. All the above petitions were filed to challenge certain Bye- laws of respondent No.3 – Gujarat State Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. In the decision dated 4/6.09.2008, the learned Single Judge held the said Bye-laws to be valid and legal. The appellant is therefore, reiterating his challenge to the said Bye-

laws in this appeal.

3. The broad facts of the case are not in dispute. Respondent No.3 – Gujarat State Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "the Federation" or "the respondent Federation") has its registered office at Anand Dairy, Anand, The Federation, credited with the white revolution in the State of Gujarat, is a State Level Federation, registered as a Co-operative Society under the Gujarat Co-operative Societies Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act'). The Federation is the State Level Apex Body for the dairies in the co-operative sector in the State. The District level dairies, which are also registered as Co- operative Societies under the Act are known as District Level Milk Producers' Unions, affiliated to the Federation. All dairy products and other milk products viz.milk, chocolate, ice-cream, curd, butter-milk etc. under the brand name of AMUL are manufactured by the District level unions i.e. the Federating unions and are also marketed as per the directives of and under the control of respondent No.3 – Federation. [The respondent Federation as well as all the Federating dairies i.e. all the District level unions are specified Societies i.e. Co-operative Societies specified in Section

74C(1) of the Act, reference to which shall be made hereinafter].

4. The Federation framed its Bye-laws in the year 1973, which were registered by the Registrar of Co-operative Societies on 19th July 1973. The objects of the Federation, as specified in Bye-law No.5, are as under:-

“5.1 The main object of the Federation is to carry out activities for the economic development of agriculturists by efficiently organizing marketing of milk and dairy produce, veterinary medicines, vaccines and other animal health products, agricultural produce in raw and/or processed form and other allied produce.

5.2 To achieve the aforesaid objective, the Federation may -

5.2.1 arrange for the sale of dairy and allied produce of the members to the best advantage all over the country and/or abroad;

5.2.2 deal with non-members for marketing dairy and allied produce subject to such conditions as may be decided by the Board from time to time.

5.2.3 prescribe and enforce standards of quality of dairy and allied produce to be marketed by the Federation....”

Bye-law No. 7 provides for three type of members:

(1)Ordinary Members.

(2)Nominal Members, and (3)Associated Members.

In this appeal, we are not concerned with nominal and associated members as they do not have voting right or right to contest an election or right in the shares in the assets or profits of the Federation. Ordinary members are those registered District Co-operative Milk Producers Union (i.e. District Dairies), which fulfill any one of the following three conditions as specified in Bye-

law No.7:-

“(a) In the immediately preceding two consecutive accounting years of the Federation it has dealings with Federation of 3 lac units in a regular manner during the course of each year.

(b) In the immediately preceding 3 co