Several cooperatives in Karnataka have knocked at the door of the High Court of Karnataka against the appointment of administrators in the cooperatives, where the Board of Directors term is over but due to the Covid condition, coop bodies are not able to conduct the elections.
Several cooperatives have filed petitions individually and many of them have succeeded in getting the interim stay in this regard from the court. There are also some where the hearing is still going on.
Interestingly, Karnataka State Apex Cooperative Bank has succeeded in getting the interim stay from the high court of Karnataka. One of the top officials of the bank said to Indian Cooperative that veteran co-operator K N Rajanna had taken personal interest in the matter and along with several other directors filed the petition before the court against the government notification.
The term of BoDs of Karnataka State Apex Cooperative Bank has been over on 1st August 2020 and just prior to the completion of terms the honourable court has given interim stay on the matter. The final verdict is yet to come, however. The next hearing will be on 10th August 2020, he said to this correspondent on the phone.
Besides, there are nine District Central Cooperative Banks including Belgaum, Tumkar, Mandya DCCBs and others in Karnataka where the term of BoDs is over and the government has appointed the administrator in these banks.
The management of these banks have also knocked at the door of the High Court and the good thing is that the court is entertaining the petitioners and the hearing in these cases are going on.
Meanwhile, co-op bodies such as Dakshina Kannada Janata Wholesale Cooperative have got success in getting the interim stay in the matter.
BJP govt of the state are not ready to listen to their own party men, charged several co-operators. One of them said to Indian Cooperative that several high-profile co-operators from the BJP did try to convince S T Somashekar, Karnataka Cooperative Minister in this regard but to no avail.
These co-operators felt that the BJP govt of Karnataka should follow the example of several other states where the governments have allowed the old team of BoDs to continue till elections are held.
Readers would recall that in the mid of July last month, Karnataka government had issued the notification postponing the elections of cooperative societies till 31st December and barring the board of directors from remaining in their position after the term is over.
It is learnt that there are 264 UCBs in the state out of which over 20 UCBs boards of directors’ term are due for competition.
