Society to have a Committee

(1) The management of a Society shall vest in a Committee constituted in accordance with this Act, Rules and Bye-laws, and the Committee so constituted shall exercise such powers and perform such duties as may be necessary or expedient for the purpose of carrying out its functions under this Act which shall include– (a) the power to– (i) admit members and dispose of applications for shares; (ii) interpret the organisational objectives and set specific goals to be achieved towards those objectives; (iii) prepare annual and supplementary budgets and get approval of the General Body thereto; (iv) raise and invest funds in accordance with the Bye-laws; (v) sanction all expenditure above the prescribed level and the plan of capital development for the coming year or years; (vi) enforce any debt or demand of the Society and institute, defend or compromise legal proceedings for or against the Society; (vii) assess the existing man-power resources and future requirements in the context of changes that might have taken place and the measures to be taken to ensure availability of the required resources, consider and remove constraints in the process or progress of manpower planning atleast once at the beginning of every year; (viii) appoint officers or other staff to conduct the business of the Society and define interalia their duties, service conditions; (c) preparation of Annual returns prescribed by the Registrar and the Auditor-General; (d) preparation of the statement of accounts required at audit and placement of the same before the auditors; (e) preparation of all other statements and returns and submission of the same to the Registrar and the Auditor-General in such forms as they may direct; (f) maintenance of the accounts of the Society regularly in proper Books; (g) maintenance of the register of members up to date; (ii-a) providing co-operative education and training to its members; (ii-b) save as provided in sub-clause(ii), filing of return of the society every year within six months of the closure of the financial year, to the Registrar or, as the case may be, to the Financing Bank, which shall include– (a) annual report of its activities; (b) its audited statement of accounts; (c) plan for surplus disposal as approved by the General Body; (d) list of amendments to its bye-laws, if any; (e) declaration regarding date of holding its General Body meeting and conduct of election when due; and (f) any other information required by the Registrar or, as the case may be, Financing Bank.; (iii) formulating recommendation for appropriation of the net profits declared as distributable under the provisions of this Act and Rules, and submitting the same to the General Body; (iv) facilitating the inspections, inquiries and audits under this Act and considering the Audit, Inspection and Inquiry Reports received from the concerned authorities and furnishing compliance there to in accordance with the provisions of this Act and Rules; (v) convening the meetings and special meetings of the General Body in time; (vi) watching that the loans and advances are utilised for the purposes for which they are meant and also that they are repaid punctually. The expiration of the period of four years shall operate as a dissolution of the Committee and thereupon; (i) The members including the President and Vice-President of the Committee shall be deemed to have vacated their officer; (ii) if the election of a new committee is not completed by the date of such dissolution, the management of the Society shall vest with the chairman, Paradeep Port Trust and upon such vesting the Chairman or any Officer of the Paradeep Port Trust authorised by him in that behalf in writing shall manage the affairs of the society and if necessary take all or any policy decision including admission of members in relation to the society and constitute the Committee in accordance with the provisions of this Act, Rules and the bye-laws within a period of six months from the date of Such dissolution. (2)(a) Subject to the provisions of this Act, the Committee of a Society, excluding the member under sub-section (3-b) and co-opted members under section 31, shall consist of,– (i) twenty-one members in the case of an Apex Society including the President and the Vice-President; and (ii) fifteen members in the case of Central Society, a Primary Society including Large Sized Adivasi Multipurpose Co-operative Society, including the President and the Vice-President of such Society.; (b) In the case of a Large-sized Adivasi Multipurpose Co-operative Society, in the total number of elected members of the Committee, there shall be representation from among the members belonging to the Scheduled Tribes, which shall be proportional to the ratio between the members belonging to the Scheduled Tribes and the total numbers of member of the said Society, not less than two third, so however that; (e) In the case of an Apex Society, in the total number of elected members of the Committee, there shall be representation from among the members belonging to the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, the other Backward Classes including Socially and Educationally Backward Classes and the Woman which shall be proportional to the ratio between the members belonging to each said category and the total number of members of the Electoral College referred to in clause (ii-a) of sub-section (1) of section 28-A, so that among each of the said Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes, the Other Backward Classes including Socially and Educationally Backward Classes of members, there shall be representation of woman which shall be proportional to the ratio between the woman members belonging to each said category in the said Electoral College and the total number of the members of the category in that Electoral College: Provided that, save as provided in the aforesaid clauses there shall be no bar for the members belonging to the said reserved categories to contest the election against the remaining seats in the Managing Committee of the Primary, Central and Apex Societies. Provided further that a Society shall provide reservation of one seat for the Scheduled Castes or the Scheduled Tribes and two seats for women to the Committee consisting of individuals as members and having members from such class or category of persons.; (f) Notwithstanding anything contained in this sub-section,– (i) In the event of the seats in the Committee reserved for Women, Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes including Socially and Educationally Backward Classes remain unfilled in any election of a Primary, Central or Apex Society, the Committee of the Society shall co-opt. the required number of such categories of members from among the members of the Primary Society, or as the case may be, from among the members of the Electoral College of the Central or Apex Society, and for the purpose of making such co-option the vacancies in the unfilled seats reserved for the said categories shall not invalidate the constitution or functioning of the Committee, if otherwise it would be having a quorum; (ii) the term of office of every such co-opted member shall be co-terminus with the other members of the Committee. (2-a) (i) A Society, the Bye-laws and the Committee of which, are not in conformity with the provisions of this Act as amended by the Orissa Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Act, 1991 shall amend its Bye-laws and notwithstanding anything to the contrary in this Act, reconstitute in the manner provided under this Act, Rules and the Bye-laws its Committee within a period of eight months from the date of commencement of the said Amendment Act, so as to bring them in conformity with the provisions as so amended. (ii) In the event of a Society failing to so amend and reconstitute within the period mentioned in Clause (i), the Registrar shall make such amendment and reconstitution within a period of four months following the date of expiry of the period mentioned in the said Clause. (2-b) The provisions of Sub-Section (2-a) shall mutatis mutandis apply to a Society, the Committee of which may be standing dissolved under Section 28 or superseded under Section 32 as on the date of commencement of the Orissa Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Act, 1991. (3) No individual shall, whether by himself or as a representative of the Society, be eligible for being chosen or for continuing as a member or the President or as the Vice-President, if any, of the Committee of a Society, if he, (a) is an applicant to be adjudicated an insolvent or an undischarged insolvent; or (b) has been sentenced for an offence involving moral turpitude such sentence not having been reversed; or (c) is of unsound mind or is a deaf-mute or is suffering from leprosy; or (d) is a family member of any paid employee of the Society : Provided that nothing in this clause shall debar - (i) any person specifically permitted by the Registrar in that behalf from becoming the Secretary of the Society; or (ii) the paid employee of societies from becoming members of the Committee of a society composed exclusively of such employees; or (e) has failed to pay any amount due, whether in cash or in kind, to the Society, its Financing Bank, or any other Society, on account of any loan or otherwise within three months from the date of notice by the Society or the Financing Bank concerned for payment of such dues : (o) (as printed in source) abstains himself from attending the meetings or special meetings of the General Body or the Representative Smaller General Body, as the case may be, over a continuous period of one year— (i) without prior intimation for every such meeting; or (ii) with prior intimation if, upon such intimation, the General Body or, as the case may be, Smaller General Body disapproves the abstention in the meeting to which the intimation relates or the meeting next following : Provided that nothing in this clause shall debar such person from becoming a member or President after the expiry of a period of two years from the date immediately following the date on which the said period of one year expires; or (P) has more than two children : Provided that nothing in this clause shall apply to a person who has more than two children as on the 1st day of January, 1995 or, as the case may be, within a period of one year of the said date, unless such person be gets an additional child after the said period of one year. (3-a) A representative of a Society or a body corporate shall not be eligible for being chosen or for continuing as a member or President of the Committee of any other Society in cases where the Society or the body corporate which he represents– (i) has failed to pay any amount due, whether in cash or in kind, to the Society, its Financing Bank or any other Society, on account of any loan or otherwise, within three months from the date of notice by the Society or the Financing Bank concerned for payment of such dues : Provided that nothing in this clause shall debar any such representative from being chosen as a member or President of the Committee of any other Society if the Society or body corporate he represents, makes payment of the dues, before the date of filing his nomination at an election of any such other Society. (i) ceases from the membership of the Society; or (ii) is ordered to be wound up or dissolved. (3-aa) Any individual continuing as a member or President of the Committee. (3-c) The Chief Executive shall be deemed to be public servant within the meaning of Section 21 of the Indian Penal Code, 1860 (5 of 1860). (4) to (4-d) x x x (5) If in the opinion of the Registrar, any officer or office-bearer of a Society who having the power, by or under the bye-laws, to remain in custody of any cash belonging to the Society, keeps in his custody, without reasonable cause, any such money in excess of the permissible limit beyond the period allowed under the Bye-laws or in any other manner not permitted thereunder, the Registrar may, by order in writing, after giving such officer or office bearer a reasonable opportunity of being heard remove him from his office, and thereupon he shall be deemed to have vacated his office with effect from the date of the said order. (6) Where any vacancy in the office of a member or the President of a Committee arises by reasons of death, resignation or removal of any member or the President or otherwise, such vacancy— (a) shall be filled up in the same manner as it was originally filled up; (b) shall, within fifteen days from the date of its occurrence, be intimated by the Chief Executive of the Society to the State Co-operative Election Commission to fill up the vacancy on receipt of intimation : Provided that where a casual vacancy occurs in the office of the member and the term of that member remains less than half of his original term, the committee shall fill up such vacancy by nomination out of the same class of members in respect of which the casual vacancy has arisen.