Recently, the Madras High Court ruled that cooperative societies are not amenable to the Right to Information (RTI) Act of 2005.
- The Madras High Court has set aside an order passed by Tamil Nadu Information Commission (TNIC) directing a cooperative society to disclose details regarding the loans extended by it.
- Legal Rationale: The court clarified that cooperative societies under the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies Act of 1983 are not ‘public authority’ as per Section 2(h) of the RTI Act of 2005.
About Cooperative Societies
- Formation: Cooperatives are organizations formed at the grassroots level by people to harness the power of collective bargaining in the marketplace.
- This can mean different kinds of arrangements, such as using a common resource or sharing capital, to derive a common gain that would otherwise be difficult for an individual producer to get.
- Example: In agriculture, cooperative dairies, sugar mills, spinning mills etc. are formed with the pooled resources of farmers who wish to process their produce. Amul from Gujarat is perhaps the best-known cooperative society in India.
- Jurisdiction: Cooperatives are a state subject under the Constitution.
- The subject ‘Cooperative Societies’ is mentioned in entry 32 of the State List under the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.
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- Right to Freedom of Speech & Expression: It was passed by the Parliament in 2005 to enable the citizens to exercise their freedom of speech and expression under Article 19(1)(a) of Indian Constitution.
- Mandate: It provides the right to information for citizens to secure access to information under the control of public authorities in order to promote transparency and accountability in the working of every public authority.
- Provision: Under the provisions of the Act, a citizen may request information from a “public authority” (a body of government) which is required to reply within thirty days.
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- However, there are many societies whose members and areas of operation are spread across more than one state. For example, most sugar mills along the districts on the Karnataka-Maharashtra border procure cane from both states.
- Constitutional Provisions:
- The 97th Constitutional Amendment, Part IXB (The Co-Operative Societies) was inserted into the Constitution.
- The Right to Form Cooperative Societies was included as the Right to Freedom under Article 19 (1).
- Article 43-B that deals with Promotion of Cooperative Societies was also inserted as one of the Directive Principles of State Policy.
- In 2021, the Ministry of Cooperation was created by the Government of India for realizing the vision of ‘Sahkar se Samriddhi’.
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June 11, 2024