The Supreme Court on Thursday reserved its judgement in the appeals filed by the Union of India challenging Gujarat High Court’s judgment striking down certain provisions of the 97th Constitutional amendment relating to Cooperative Societies, reports livelaw.in.
A three-judge bench of Justice RF Nariman, Justice KM Joseph, and Justice BR Gavai reserved the order after hearing extensive arguments by Attorney General KK Venugopal, Adv Masoom Shah and Senior Adv Prakash Jain and Advocate Ritika Shah.
During the hearing, the bench told Attorney General K K Venugopal that it wanted to examine if the amendment interfered with the exclusive power of the State under Article 246 (3) with regard to enacting law relating to cooperatives as it is the state subject.
Venugopal said the amendment was enacted to bring in uniformity in the management of cooperative societies and it does not take away the powers of the State to enact laws with regard to them, reports PTI.
The issue of implementation of 97th Constitutional Amendment Act has been finding mention in almost all the co-op conclaves taking place in the country. During his RS stint in November 2020, the then NCUI President Chandra Pal Singh Yadav raised the issue during zero hour in Rajya Sabha. Heralded as the panacea for all co-op ills, the Act is yet to be implemented due to legal tangles.
Batting for uniformity in the co-operative sector across states, the NCUI President urged upon the acting Chairman of the House to find a solution for the 97th Constitutional Amendment Act which has been pending for the last 10 years.
There is a section of co-operators who accused the NDA govt of stalling the 97th Constitutional Amendment as it was fathered by Sharad Pawar. The Act has the power of making cooperative a transparent enterprise thereby freeing co-operative from accusations –malicious or genuine levelled against them from time to time.
It bears recall that Parliament in Constitutional (97th Amendment) Act, 2011, received the assent of the President on 12.01.2012, notified in the Gazette of India on 13.01.2012 and came into force on 15.02.2012.
Later, the Gujarat HC has questioned the 97th constitutional amendment. Experts say the Honourable High Court of Gujarat has not just “questioned” the 97th Constitutional (Amendment) Act 2011, but quashed its vital element, the part IXB of the Constitution inserted thereby, as unconstitutional. But that cannot become unconstitutional for other States. No other High Court has agreed with the view.
The Constitution (97th Amendment) Act 2011 made integrated three-fold amendments to the Constitution of India concerning the Indian Cooperatives; To Fundamental Rights [Part III]; To directive principles of the State Policy [Part IV]; To body of the Constitution of India: inserting New Part IXB: The Cooperative Societies.
Treating forming a cooperative society as a fundamental right of citizens, the Parliament as a follow-up step inserted a new directive principle of State Policy under Article 43B that “The State shall endeavour to promote voluntary formation, autonomous functioning, democratic control and professional management of co-operative societies.”
Based on this assumption, the Himachal Pradesh Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2020 was passed in the State Legislative Assembly with several amendments. Experts say Himachal Pradesh becomes the first state where the 97th Constitutional Amendment, which gives the right to form a cooperative society has been implemented.
