Ours is a cooperative hsg sty situated in Andheri East with Reg no HSG/5407 (A) 26/04/78.
Some members are suggesting to collect some fixed amount per month to carry out cultural activities in the campus on special occasions.
My question is whether MC has a right to do so. If any GR or circular from authority is there?
I C Naik
Yours’s is an old CHS and I am surprised that this matter has cropped up now. Contribution to Cultural Activity fund has been a contentious issue all along. I have been and even to day of the view that such contribution on the lines of a member’s contribution to maintenance expenses is not fitting in to the Scheme under any Model bye-laws issued by the Commissioner and the Registrar of Cooperative Societies so far. There is an object in every Model bye-laws to the following effect:
To undertake and provide for, on its own account or jointly with a co-op institution, social, cultural or recreational activities; {Pl verify this in the registered bye-laws of your CHS}.
There is one more bye-law about organizing funds to attain this object. Relevant Bye-law reads more or less as under in every model:
APPROPRIATION OF PROFITS
(a) After providing for the interest upon any loans and deposits and after making such other deductions as required under Section 65(1) of the Act, 25 per cent of the net profit of all the business carried on by or on account of the society, shall be placed at the credit of the Reserve Fund of the society.
(b) The remaining 75 per cent of the net profit of the society shall be utilized as follows viz.;
(i) To pay dividend not exceeding *15 per cent/annum, up on the paid-up share capital at such rate as the Committee may recommend and the annual general body meeting may approve. The dividend on shares shall be paid to the registered holders of such shares according to the books of the society as on the last day of the co-operative year preceding.
(ii) To pay honorarium to the office-bearers of the society not exceeding 15 per cent of the net profit to reward them for the sacrifice of their valuable time for the working of the society.
(iii) To allocate to a common welfare fund, such part of the profit, as the annual meeting of the general body may determine, to be utilized in furtherance of the objects specified in the bye-law No. 5(d).
(iv) The balance, if any, shall be carried forward or dealt with in such manner as the annual meeting of the general body, on the recommendations of the Committee, may determine.
There is no circular on this subject. Some societies do collect by a resolution of general body meeting which is against the cooperative management but a majority thrust upon minority.