The High Court · 2025

Petition under Section '151 cPC praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed in support of the petition, the High Court may be pleased to suspend the impugned order dated O7lO5l2O25 bearing R.C. No. 3941t2024- IVACS. lA NO: 2 OF 2025 Petition under Section 151 cPC praying that in the circumstances stated in the affidavit filed in support of the petition, the High Court may be pleased to permit the Petitioner society to conduct.elections as per the amended bye-laws of the society which are approved by the General Body. Counsel for the Petitioner: SRt SUNTL B.GANU, SENTOR COUNSEL FOR M/s. MANJARI S GANU Counsel for the Respondents: GP FOR COOPERATION The Court made the following:ORDER \ \" THE HONOURABLE SMT. JUSTICE T. MADHAVI DBVI WRIT PETITIONNo.15078 0F 2025 ORDER In this Writ petition, the petitioner is seeking a Writ of Mandamus declaring the tmpugned order of the 2"d respondent dt.07.05.2025 bearing R.C.No.394ll2024_MACS as violative of the Telangana Mutua,y Aided Co-operative 'societies Act, lgg5 and also in violation of principles of natural jmtice and also violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and to declare the same as non_est in law and to consequently direct the 2nd respondent to register the amendments made to the existing bye-laws of the petitioner society pursuant to the minutes of the meetings held by the petitioner in consonance with the Telangana Mutually Aided co-operative Societies Act, 1gg5 and to pass such other order or orders. 2' Brief facts leading to the filing of the present writ petition are that the petitioner society was formed in the year l99g with the objective of improving the economic and sociar betterment and welfare of its members, i.e., advocates through mutual aid, thrift and self help in ) \ W.P.No.l5078 of 2025 2 -lx accordance with the principle ol cooperation as enunciated in Section 3 of the Telangana Mutually Aided Co-operative Societies Act, 1995 (for short, "the TMACS Act"). It was registered under the TMACS Act vide registration No.AMC/LIYD(U) MACS-99(27) CREDIT and it has formulated its own bye-laws which have been approved by the Registrar and has been functioning in accordance therewilh. It is stated that the society consists of a Board, which means Boald of Directors of the society and the Committee of the society consists of the President, Vice- president, Secretary, Joint Secretary and Treasurer and that the General Body shall in its annual election, elect 4 Directors, i'e', one each from amongst its 4 Constituencies every year for a period of 3 years so that there are l2 Dircctors of the Board at any given point of time. It is stated that recently, new Courts were established at Kukatpally, Medchal- Malkajgiri, Vikarabad due to reorganisation of Ranga Reddy District by the State Govemment apart from already existing civil Courts at Hyderabad and Secunderabad and Nampatly and at L.B'Nagar, Ranga Reddy District and in order to give proper representation to the members from the newly formed Courls, the General Body meeting of the society was called for and amendments were proposed to byeJaw No.2(ii), bye- law No.7, bye-law No. l5(i) and bye-law No.17 for induction of two i 't I W-P.No.15078 of 2025 3 lady members and one member from SC/ST category to be in compliance wirh the amendments to TMACS Act vide G.O.Ms.No.2g, Agriculture & cooperation (coop.Il) Department, dt.r9.o4.zo26as well. It is stated that General Body meeting was held on 04.0g.2024 which was attended by 1260 members who had passed a resolution to propose amendments in its special meeting to be called for the said purpose and subsequently the speciar Generar Body meeting was held on 03.r1.2024 which was attended by 367 members and all of them unanimously approved the amendments to the bye_laws. Thereafter, the amendments were forwarded to the 2nd respondent for approval. However, the same was not approved on the ground that the totar number of members of the society was 4971, out of which only 367 members have attended the meeting and therefore, the quorum of r/lOth of the total members was not met and therefore, the amendments proposed by the society were not in accordance with the provisions of the TMACS Act. Challenging the same, the present Writ petition has been filed. 3' Leamed senior counsel appearing for the petitioner has reiterated the submissions made in the writ affidavit and submitted that Section I l of TMACS Act provides for a quorum of General Body meeting to three (3) major decisions, such as change of liability, transfer of assets and t \ \ W.P.No.15078 of 2025 4 liabilities, division arld arrralgarnation, as two-thirds of the members present and voting and therefore, when the General Body meeting was attendedby36Tmembersandresolutionswerepassedunanimously,the condition of quorum has been futfilled. He submitted that the bye-laws ofthe society were registered in the year 1999 and were approved by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies and several amendments have been made thereafter, which were all approved by the Registrar respectively and therefore, the amendments, which have now been proposed, are only to include Directori for newly constituted Courts and to induct two lady members and one SC/ST member into the Board of Directors which cannot be held to be not in accordance with the bye-laws. He further submitted that in order to comply with the requirements of G.O.Ms.No.2S dt.lg.04.2016, the amendments of induction of two lady members and one SC/ST member were proposed' However, he submitted that the said G.O. has been challenged by the petitioner society in w.P.No.28888 of 2016 on certain grounds and the Division Bench of this Court has granted stay of the G.O. He submitted that without prejudice to the above, the petitioner society can always make reservation. ro.,!'its . own for induction of two lady members and one SC/ST .there cannot be any bar on the same. He therefore a) W.P.No_ 15078 of2025 prayed that the impugned order be set aside and directions may be given to the respondents to approve the amendment of bye-raws and thereafter to allow the petitioner society to hold General Body meeting for conduct of elections to the Board of Directors

4. The petitioner has also filed a copy of the order of the Division Bench of this Court in W.p.No.2gggg of 20l6and batch dt.26.07.2016, whereunder the operation of G.O.Ms.No .2g dt.1g.04.2016 has been stayed until further orders.

5. Learned counsel for the petitioner further referred to the impugned order dt.07.05 .2025, whereinthere is reference to Model bye_ law No.lg which also refers to the quorum as two_thirds of the members present and voting. Therefore, according to him, the petitioner has satisfied the condition of quorum even as under the Model bye_law No.l8.

6. Leamed Government pleader for Cooperation, on the other hand, relied upon the averments made in the counter affidavit and submitted that under section 9(2)(xiii)and (xviii) of the TMAcs Act, the bye_laws have to provide for quorurm for any general meeting and the bye_laws of the petitioner society did not provide for the same. He submitted that ; .-\ -'*"1 W-P.No. t5078 of 2025 J 6 under the TMACS Act, the quorum provided for General Body meeting is one-tenth of the members and in this case, since the petitioner did not fulfil the quomm, the amendments to the bye-laws could not be approved. [n respect of the Model bye-law No. I 8, it is submitted that for any General Body meeting to commence, it should have required 'I quomm as specified in the bye-laws and the amendment will be passed at the General Body meeting by majority of not less than two-thirds of the members present and voting, which means that out of the required quomm, two-thirds of the members present shall vote in favour of the amendment and only then such amendment shall get approved. It is subrnitted that in this case, one-tenth of the members were not present in the General Body meeting and therefore, the amendments could not have been passed. In respect of the contention of the petitioner that in compliance with G.O.Ms.No.28 dt.19.04.2016, the amendment to induct two lady members and one SC/ST member has been proposed, she submitted that the operation of the said G.O. has been stayed by the Division Bench of this Court in W.P.No.28888 of 2016 fited by the petitioner society herein and therefore, the proposed amendments on account of G.O.Ms.No.28 cannot be approved. I W-P.No.l5O78 of 2025 7 7' Having regard to the rivar contentions and the materiar on record, this Court finds that the petitioner society was registered under the Telangana Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies Act, 1995 in the year 1999 and its bye_laws were approved by the Registrar of Cooperative Societies. Section l6 of the Telangana Co_operative Societies Act, 1964 provides for amendment of bye_laws of a sociery and according to Sub_ section (1) thereof, no amendment of any bye_law of a society shall be valid unless the resolution for such amendment is passed at its General meeting by a majority of not less than two_thirds of the members of present and voting and such amendment has been registered under this Act. Rule 23 of the Telangana Co_operative Societies Rules, 1964 prescribes quorum for meeting and it is provided that no general meeting shall be held or proceeded with unless there is a quorum as specified in the'bye-laws provided that the bye_laws shall not specifr quomm which is less than l/lOm of the total members. Under TMACS Act, Section 9 deals with bye_laws and Sub_section (2) thereof refers to the components of the byeJaws of a Co_operative Society and Clause (xiii) thereunder refers to the manner and frequency of convening general meeting and quorum required and Clause (xviii) deals with the frequency of convening board meetlngs and quorum. manner and \ \ W.P.No.15078 o1'2025 8 Admittedly, the petitioner's bye-laws did not provide for the quorum for a General Body meeting or meeting of the Managing Committee. Section 10 of TMACS Act deals with amendment of bye-lau's and the manner in which such amendments can be carried out. Section i I of TMACS Act deals with change of liability, transfer of assets and liabilities, division, amalgamation, etc., and Sub-section (3) thereof provides that every resolution of a Co-operative Society under this section shall be passed at iti general meeting by a majority of total members with right of vote or two-thirds of members present and voting whichever is less and such resolution shall contain alI particulars of the liabitity, transfer, division, amalgamation as the case may be. In the guidelines issued for framing bye-laws of a cooperative under the Telangana Mutually Aided Co-operative Societies Act, 1995 issued by the State Govemment and Guideline No.13, it is provided that the quorum for general body may range between one-fifth (in the case of large/scattered membership) and one-half (in the case of small/contiguous membership) of the membership, the quorum for the representative general body should really be between one-half and three- fourths of delegates. In this case, since the quorum has not been provided for in the bye-laws which have been approved by the Registrar, W.P-No.15078 of2025 9 the petitioner society cannot be found fault with for proposing the amendments by following the quorum of the two_thirds of the members present and voting. In this case, the proposed amendments are also not going to change the constitution of the society and it is onry providing for reservation of Directors in favour of two ladies and one SC/ST member and also for the representation of the Directors of the four new Courts. Since the amendments were passed unanimously by all the members present and voting, the requirement of quorum of two_thirds of the members present and voting is satisfied in this case.

8. Therefore, this Court directs the 2nd respondent to register the amended bye-laws, if they are otherwise order, and permit the petitioner to proceed in accordance with such bye_laws. However, in order to bring the society on par with the Modet bye_laws, the petitioner society is advided to amend its bye_laws to provide for quorum for General Body meeting in its bye-laws immediatery in the next General Body meeting to be held after the election to the Board of Directors. 9 With the above directions, the Writ petition is disposed of. No order as to costs. W.P.No. t5078 of 2025 10 Pending miscellaneous applications' if any' in this Writ Petition

10. shall stand closed' sd/- MoHD. ISMAIL D PUTY REGISTRAR /TTRUE COPY// SECTION OFFICER 1 ffi.I::H**flll:k'ffi ;il*t':'r"i:,:J:::"x*:- 3tr[il'"'r:'#q#.'i'"si"J"":"'ie'rreansana PSK. l*$+*:l,,lH,Htf PVL N/ 1 HIGH COURT DATED:1 010712025 ORDER WP.No.15078 of 2025 ,& 1r 1f o( (. 04 AUE n?\ te-i;-;,6i' ,:"' o (J o '+ * DISPOSING OF THE WRIT PETITION WITHOUT COSTS