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2026 Supreme(Online)(Kar) 27520

THIS WRIT APPEAL FILED UNDER SECTION 4 OF THE KARNATAKA HIGH COURT ACT PRAYING TO SET ASIDE THE ORDER PASSED BY THE LEARNED SINGLE JUDGE IN W.P. No.39397/2025, DATED 19.01.2026 AND CONSEQUENTLY ALLOW THE PETITION FILED BY THE APPELLANT IN THE ENDS OF JUSTICE & ETC.
THIS WRIT APPEAL HAVING BEEN HEARD AND RESERVED FOR JUDGMENT, COMING ON FOR PRONOUNCEMENT THIS DAY, JUDGMENT WAS PRONOUNCED AS UNDER:
CORAM: HON'BLE MR. VIBHU BAKHRU, CHIEF JUSTICE and HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE C.M. POONACHA

Advocates:
For the Appellants/Petitioners: D R Ravishankar, Saravana S.
For the Respondents: Prathima Honnapura, K.S. Harish, Likith R. Prakash, Jayakumar S. Patil, Sumanth Kumar S. Patil, Monica Patil, M.R. Rajagopal, P. Anand

A government order exempting primary cooperative societies from voting disqualifications is interpreted purposively to include all federal societies, including apex bodies, regardless of their operational area, to ensure the legislative goal of broad participation in cooperative elections is achieved.

Headnote:(A) Karnataka Co-operative Societies Act, 1959 - Sections 2(a), 2(e-4), 2(h-1), 20(2)(a-iii) and 121 - Eligibility to vote in co-operative society elections - Relaxation of disqualification - Interpretation of government order - The government exempted newly registered societies from the twelve-month membership condition to vote in federal society elections. Court held that the exemption is widely applicable to all primary societies member of federal societies, including apex bodies, regardless of the area of operation, as to hold otherwise would defeat the legislative intent of the exemption. (Paras 9-16, 21-24, 35-37)

(B) Interpretation of Statutes - Ejusdem generis - Applicability - General words following specific enumeration in a statute are not to be restrictively construed if it defeats the purposive intent of the legislation. The rule cannot be applied to whittle down the legislative object. (Paras 28-33)

Facts of the case:
An appeal was filed against an order dismissing a petition seeking the disqualification of newly registered societies from voting in an election of an apex society. The appellant argued that the government order providing exemption from the twelve-month membership requirement for voting did not apply to apex societies, relying on the rule of ejusdem generis and the specific context of the government order.

Findings of Court:
The Court held that the government order, issued under the power to exempt societies from statutory provisions, was meant to facilitate participation in elections for newly registered societies. The scope of "other federal cooperative societies" in the exemption order included apex societies because they are inherently federal in nature. The Court refused to apply the rule of ejusdem generis to limit the benefit of the exemption, as such a narrow interpretation would contradict the purpose of the notification.

Issues: The main issue was whether the government order exempting primary societies from the twelve-month membership disqualification criterion for voting applied to elections held for apex societies, or if it was restricted to district-level federal societies.

Ratio Decidendi: The principle of purposive interpretation mandates that a statute or government order be construed to advance the object of the legislation. Since the purpose of the exemption was to broaden democratic participation for newly registered societies, excluding apex societies would be contrary to this legislative intent. The term "federal society" in the order applies to all entities falling under that definition, including those with state-wide operations.

Result: Appeal dismissed.

Table of Content
1. factual background involving membership and election eligibility disqualification. (Para 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 , 5 , 6 , 7)
2. defined legal framework for apex, federal, and primary co-operative societies. (Para 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 16)
3. interpretation of government orders relaxing voting ineligibility criteria. (Para 17 , 18 , 19 , 20 , 21 , 22 , 23 , 24 , 25 , 26 , 27)
4. applicability of statutes and purposive interpretation of legislative intent. (Para 28 , 29 , 30 , 31 , 32 , 33 , 34 , 35 , 36 , 37 , 38 , 39 , 40 , 41 , 42)

C.A.V. JUDGMENT

(PER: HON'BLE MR. VIBHU BAKHRU, CHIEF JUSTICE)

1. The appellant has filed this intra-court appeal impugning an order dated 19.01.2026 [impugned order] passed by the learned Single Judge of this Court in W.P.No.39397/2025 (CS-EL/M).

2. The appellant had filed the said writ petition, inter alia, praying that respondents No.6 to 67 Societies be declared as disqualified from voting to elect the office-bearers of respondent No.5 Society.

3. The elections to the Board of Directors of the respondent No.5 Society, which is an Apex Society, were held on 06.01.2026, pursuant to the election notification dated 13.11.2025 and the calendar of events dated 20.12.2025. The appellant is the President/delegate of Shri. Thyluramadevi Poultry Farmers Co-op Society Ltd., Thyuluru, which is a primary co-operative society registered under the Karnataka Co-operative Societies Act, 1959 [KCS Act]. The said Society is a member of the respondent No.5 Society, which, as stated before, is an Apex Society. The appellant contested for the post of Director in the elections held on 06.01.2026.

4. Respondents No.6 to 67 are the Primary Co-operative Societies registered under the KCS Act and are members of the respondent No.5 Society. Notwithstanding that they were members of the respondent No.5 Apex Society, their names were not included in the list of eligible voters. Accordingly, they filed writ petitions, being W.P.No.38066/2025 and W.P.No.38042/2025, claiming to be eligible to vote for electing the Board of Directors of the respondent No. 5 Society by virtue of the Government Order dated 29.05.2025 [hereafter "the GO"] issued under Section 121 of the KCS Act, whereby the disqualification as provided under Section 20(2)(a-iii) of the KCS Act was relaxed. The said petitions were disposed of with a direction to the respondent No.5 Society to consider their representations in the light of the said GO.

5. Thereafter, respondent No.5 issued a delegation/representative form to respondents No.6 to 67 and included them among the eligible voters. According to the appellant, the GO is inapplicable to respondents No.6 to 67 societies. The appellant claims that since Respondent No. 5 is an Apex Society, the GO does not relax the ineligibility criterion under Section 20(2)(a-iii) of the KCS Act for such societies.

6. The appellant contends that the Primary Co-operative Societies that were formed and registered less than a year prior to the election of the office bearers of a federal society are ineligible to vote. However, in terms of the GO, the said condition had been relaxed. According to the appellant, the GO is inapplicable for election to an Apex Society as defined under Section 2(a) of the KCS Act and its benefit is confined to Federal Societies that are not Apex Societies.

7. The learned Single Judge did not accept the appellant's contention and accordingly dismissed the appellant’s writ petition as well as W.P.No.38350/2025 (CS-EL/M), which raised a similar issue. Apart from dismissing the writ petitions, the learned Single Judge set aside the declaration of results made by respondent No.5 and directed the Returning Officer to count the votes of respondent Nos.6 to 67 and to declare the result of the election afresh.

8. As is apparent from the above, the dispute in the present appeal lies in a narrow compass. The only question to be addressed is whether the GO is applicable to elections to an Apex Socie

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2026 Supreme(Online)(Kar) 27520

Cases Referred (3)