Kochi: In a significant order, the Kerala High Court has ruled that administrators, administrative committees and elected managing committees of cooperative societies enjoyed powers to expel any member of the society. At the same time, only the elected managing committee could enroll members, a division bench of the court said.

The ruling was made by the division bench comprising Justices Alexander Thomas and Shoba Annamma Eapen in a case related to the Adatt Farmers’ Service Cooperative Bank in Thrissur district.

The part-time administrator and the bank had filed an appeal before the division bench against an order of a single bench.

All about the case
A previous administrator of the cooperative bank had enrolled 4,464 new members. Another administrator who took charge later issued an advertisement in a newspaper in 2020 asking these members to show cause for not being expelled from the society.

However, two members approached the High Court with an appeal questioning the show-cause notice and the move to remove them from society membership.

A single bench of the court which considered the appeal of the two members ruled that membership in cooperative societies was an individual’s right and ordered that a registered notice should be sent for expelling members. The single bench also quashed the notice published in the newspaper and the expulsion move.

In other words, even though only two members had approached the court, the single bench order applied to all the 4,464 members who were asked to show cause for not being expelled.

Division bench’s order
Considering the appeal filed by the present administrator and the bank, the division bench overruled the single bench’s order which also covered the 4,462 society members who had not approached the court.

The division bench also quashed the single bench ruling which upheld the plea of the two members who argued that administrator and administrative committee had no powers to remove ineligible members.

According to the division bench, sending a registered notice or not was a discretion of the administrators. Publishing a show-cause notice in a newspaper was not an illegal act as observed by the single bench, added the division bench.

The division bench also directed the bank to give a hearing to the two members who had approached the court and take a suitable decision. At the same time, the decision to expel the remaining 4,462 members from the society was approved.