In a major relief to the State Government, the Odisha High Court on Wednesday dismissed all the writ petitions that had challenged the new law on cooperative societies and Self-Help Groups (SHGs).
With this, the move of the Government to have firm control over formation and management of cooperative societies and SHGs has brightened but not before May 19 this year.
This was made clear when a Division Bench of the High Court dismissed all the petitions challenging the Government’s intentions and vacated the interim stay it had imposed on the operation of the new law last year.
After repealing the Odisha Cooperative Societies Act, the Government last year had promulgated the Odisha Self-help Cooperative (Repeal) Ordinance, which subsequently took the shape of an Act. The objective of the Act was to bring the formation and management of nearly 2,000 SHGs and cooperative societies under the control of the Government.
Challenging the Ordinance and the subsequent Act, more than a dozen petitions were filed in the High Court in which the petitioners had questioned the intentions of the Government on the plea that it was against the spirit of an earlier judgement of the Supreme Court as they violate the rights guaranteed under Article 19 (1) C of the Indian Constitution.
Admitting the petitions, the High Court in September last year had slapped a stay on the operation of the 2013 Ordinance and issued notices to the State Government asking the Chief Secretary, law Secretary and Registrar of Cooperative Societies to file counters to the petitions.
Hearing both sides, Chief Justice AK Goel and Justice AK Rath on Wednesday dismissed all the petitions and vacated its stay order. The court, however, restrained the Government from taking any action on the basis of the new law for three months.