In a partial relief for the newly-elected chairman of Mehsana Dairy Vipul Chaudhary, the Gujarat High Court set aside the order prohibiting him from contesting elections of cooperative institutes for six years.
In another relief for him, the High Court also stayed implementation of the Registrar’s order for ten days so that he can move the Supreme Court.
However, the court said the previous order of March 2015 under which he was disqualified for three years will remain in effect.
Justice C L Soni took into account the argument of Chaudhary’s lawyers that the Act under which the Registrar of Cooperative Societies passed the order in December 2015 could not be applied retrospectively. The case dated back to March 2015 while the Act came into force in April.
In the petition, filed Monday, which came up for hearing before Justice C L Soni Tuesday, Chaudhary challenged the order passed by the state Registrar of Cooperative Societies in December last year.
Through the order, Chaudhary has been barred from holding any position in any cooperative society and from contesting polls in such societies for six years. In his petition, Chaudhary, who has been elected as the chairman of Mehsana-based Dudhsagar dairy a week back, also alleged that the order has been issued by the Registrar at the behest of the Gujarat government out of malice, which amounts to violating the Article 14 of the Constitution.