Constitution of Committee

(1)(a) The General Body of a society shall constitute a committee in accordance with the bye-laws and entrust the management of the affairs of the society to such committee: Provided that in case of a newly registered society, the applicants who signed the application for registration under section 6 of this Act shall conduct the affairs of the society for a period of 90 days from the date of registration of the society. The applicants shall initiate the process of constitution of committee within 30 days of registration of the society: Provided further that, if the applicants who got the society registered fail to constitute a committee to manage the affairs of the society within 90 days from the date of registration of the society, the Registrar shall take steps to constitute a committee to manage the affairs of the society or may choose to cancel the registration of the society as deemed fit: Provided further that if no committee is constituted under this section to manage the affairs of the society within 180 days from the date of the registration of the society, the certificate of Registration issued under section 8 is deemed to have been cancelled: Provided further that where the bye-laws so provide, the Government or the Registrar may nominate all or any of the members of the first promoters Committee for such period as may be specified or till the first elected Committee assumes office, whichever is earlier. (b) The Board / Committee shall consist of such number of Directors as may be prescribed: Provided that the maximum number of Directors of a Co-operative society shall not exceed twenty-one: Provided further that one seat for the Scheduled Caste or the Scheduled Tribe and two seats for women shall be reserved on Board of every Co-operative society consisting of individuals as members and having members from such class or category of persons subject to that in the case of a Primary Agricultural Co-operative Credit Society, a Farmers Service Co-operative Society, a Co-operative farming Society, a Co-operative Central Bank and a District Co-operative marketing society, not more than one-half of the total number of seats to be filled by elected members of the Committee thereof shall be reserved to be filled by members of the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, Backward Classes and Women in such proportion as may be prescribed: Provided further that the Board may fill up a casual vacancy / shortfall of the Board by nomination out of the same class of members in respect of which the casual vacancy / shortfall has arisen, if the term of office of the Board is less than half of its original term: Provided further that no member who has lost in the current election shall be eligible for filling up the casual vacancy that has arisen during the current term of the Board. (c) [xxx] (d) [xxx] (e) In addition to the number specified as per section 31(1)(b), the elected members of Committee may co-opt, not exceeding two persons as members of the Committee, out of which one shall have experience in the field of banking or management or finance and the other shall have specialization in any other field relating to the objects and activities undertaken by the society: Provided that such co-opted members shall not have the right to vote in any election of the co-operative society in their capacity as such member or to be eligible to be elected as office bearers of the Committee: Provided further that Functional Directors of a Co-operative society as may be prescribed shall also be the members of the Committee and such members shall be excluded for the purpose of counting the total number of the Directors specified in section 31(1)(b). (1-A) Notwithstanding anything in this Act or in the bye-laws of the societies referred to in clause (b) of sub-section (1), the Government may, for the purpose of effective implementation of the reservation specified in clause (b), by rules made in this behalf, provide for the constitution of, and election to, the committiees of such societies and all other matter relating thereto; including the division of constituencies, allocation of seats and the choice of persons belonging to weaker sections of the society as members of the committee of any central society from amongst the members of the committees of the societies affiliated to such central society, by the members of the central society in cases where no such person is a member of the general body of such central society. (2)(a) The term of office of the Committee and its Office Bearers including President are elected in accordance with the provisions of sub-section (5) shall be five years from the date of election of the members of the committee. The term of the office bearers shall be coterminous with the term of Board. (b) [xxx] (c) [xxx] (3)(a) In the case of the committee of Cooperative Central Bank a District Marketing Society, a District Cooperative Wholesale Store, a Centrally sponsored consumer cooperative Stores, an apex society and a society formed for a sugar factory or for a spinning mill, such officer of the cooperative department, not below the rank of a Deputy Registrar, as may be authorised by the State Cooperative Election Authority in this behalf shall be the election officer and the election of the members of the committee shall be in such manner as may be prescribed by the State Cooperative Election Authority. (b) In any other case, the election officer and the manner of election of the members of the committee shall be such as may be prescribed by the State Cooperative Election Authority: Provided that where a requisition signed by not less than one-fifth of the total number of members is received by the Registrar to appoint an election officer to conduct an election, the Registrar shall appoint the election officer to conduct the election. (4)(a) For the purpose of electing members to its committee, a society may provide in its bye-laws, for the division of the area of operation of a society into territorial constituencies, or of the membership of the society into electoral groups on any other basis, for the number or proportion of members who may be elected to represent each such territorial constituency or electoral group on the committee, and for the manner of election of such representatives. (b) In the absence of such bye-laws, the society may elect members to its committee from among all the members of the society. (5) In the case of such classes of Co-operative Societies as may be prescribed the president shall subject to the provisions of section 21-A, be elected by the members of the committee from among themselves in the manner prescribed.