Offences and penalties.

Offences and penalties. (1) Any co-operative society or an officer or member thereof, willfully making a false return or furnishing false information, or any person willfully or without any reasonable excuse disobeys any summons, requisition or lawful written order issued under the provisions of this Act, or willfully not furnishing any information required from it or him or by a person authorized in this behalf under the provisions of this Act, shall be punishable with fine which shall not be less than Rs. 2,000 but which may extend to Rs. 10,000.

(2) Any employer who, without sufficient cause, fails to pay to a co-operative society the amount deducted by him under section 52 within a period of fourteen days from the date on which such deduction is made shall, without prejudice to any action that may be taken against him under any other law for the time being in force, be punishable with fine which may extend to Rs. 5,000.

(3) Any officer or custodian who willfully fails to handover custody of books, accounts, documents, records, cash, security and other property belonging to a co-operative society of which he is an officer or custodian, to a person entitled under section 38 or section 60 or section 61 or section 62 or section 99 shall be punishable with fine which may extend to Rs. 2,000 and in the case of a continuing breach, with a further fine which may extend to Rs. 5,000 for every day during which the breach is continued after conviction for the first such breach.

(4) Any person who acts in contravention of section 44 or section 45 or sub-section (2) of section 66 or section 67 or section 68 or section 138 shall be punishable with fine of Rs. 500.

(5) The committee of a co-operative society or any of its officers or employees who falsify or tamper with the record of the co-operative society, shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine.

(6) Any officer or employee of a co-operative society including the paid secretary who dishonestly or fraudulently misappropriates or otherwise converts for his own use or intentionally causes loss to the property of the co-operative society entrusted to him or under his control as such officer or employee, or allows another person so to do shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine.

(7) If any allotment of plot or flat is made by the committee in contravention of the provisions of sub-section (1) of section 77, the committee and its members responsible shall be punishable with imprisonment which may extend to seven years and shall also be liable to fine.

(8) If a co-operative society fails to file return as required under section 32, the committee or the negligent officer shall be punishable with a fine, which may extend to Rs. 500.

(9) If committee fails to dispose of application within the period prescribed in section 91, the committee members responsible shall be liable to a penalty of Rs. 10,000 and in the case of a continuing breach, with a further fine of 14. Under Sec-118(1) - "(1) It shall be an offence under this Act, if - (a) the committee, an officer, employee or any member of the co-operative society wilfully makes a false return or furnishes false information relating to the affairs of the co-operative society under this Act; (b) the committee, its officers or employees falsify or tamper with the records of the co-operative society; (c) the committee fails to hold annual general body meeting under sub-section (1) of section 31 or fails to send returns to the Registrar after the meeting under section 32; (d) committee fails to act on a requisition for holding special general body meeting under sub-section (2) of section 33; (e) the outgoing committee does not hand over the records to the newly elected committee or administrator or the liquidator under sub-section (2) of section 38; (f) the committee or any of its officials fail to comply with the directions given under section 42 or section 138; (g) any person acts in contravention of section 44 or section 45 or sub-section (2) of section 66 or section 67 or section 68 or sub-section (8) of section 92; (h) if any allotment of plot or flat is made in contravention of provisions of sub-section (1) of section 77; (i) an officer, or an employee of the co-operative society including the paid secretary, dishonesty or fraudulently mis-appropriates or otherwise converts for his own use or intentionally causes loss to the property of the co-operative society entrusted to him or under his control as such officer or employee or allows any other person so to do; (j) an officer or an employee of the co-operative society is or proved to have been in possession of any pro-perty of the co-operative society reasonably suspected to have been stolen or unlawfully obtained; (k) any officer or employee abets any offence punishable under this Act whether or not that offence is committed in consequence of that abetment; (l) if the committee fails to initiate action against the defaulter member for recovery of dues of the apex or any other financing institution after the finality of the award or after recovery of such dues, fails to pay the recovered amount to the apex or the financial institution; (m) on failure to convert the property to freehold by a power of attorney holder or purchaser of property on agreement to sell within a period of three hundred and sixty days the under provisions of section 91; (n) on failure of the committee of a co-operative housing society to complete construction of its housing project within time limit fixed under sub-section (1) of section 92. (2) An offence under clause (a) of sub-section (1) shall be punishable with fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees. (3) An offence under any of the clauses (b) to (n) of sub-section (1) shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to seven years and with fine which may extend to fifty thousand rupees or the both. (4) On conviction, a member of the co-operative society shall be debarred from contesting election of a committee for a period of six years. (5) The period of limitation for taking cognizance of the offence under this section shall be three years from the date of the offence."