Kerala High Court | Photo: Mathrubhumi
Kochi: Administrators or their committees can remove members of cooperative societies, ruled the Kerala High Court.
It also stated that the governing body has the right to distribute membership with voting power. The order was delivered by justices Alexander Thomas and Shoba Annamma Eapen in the appeal filed by Adat Farmers’ Service Cooperative Society.
In 2020, the newly-appointed administrator of Adat society published a newspaper advertisement stating that the 4,464 members of the society enrolled by the previous administrator must prove their right not to be fired. Following this, the members were ousted.
In the litigation that followed, HC single bench cancelled the action of the administrator saying he did not have the power to cancel memberships. The court also noted that members must have been given individual notices.
The division bench has now overturned this order. The court approved the removal of the members who did not challenge the dismissal. It also directed the administrator to hear the petitioners and act on them.
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