IRMA declaration welcomes SC verdict on 97th amendment to Constitution
K M Dayashankar
KARIMNAGAR: Speakers at a consultation on “Autonomy and Independence of Cooperatives in India organized” by Anand at the Institute of Rural Management Anand (IRMA) in Gujarat state on Friday, have welcomed the Supreme Court decision quashing the Constitution 97th amendment.
The IRMA had organised the consultation with eminent personalities in the cooperative sectors as part of the centenary celebrations of Dr Verghese Kurien, who was the champion of the cooperative movement in the country. The top court’s verdict came on the Centre’s plea challenging the Gujarat High Court’s 2013 decision striking down certain provisions of the 97th constitutional amendment while holding that Parliament cannot enact laws with regard to cooperative societies as it is a State subject.
Prominent among those who participated in the deliberations virtually and personally include; NAFSCOB, TSCAB and Karimnagar DCCB chairman Konduru Ravinder Rao, National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) Dileep Sanghani, IFFCO Joint managing director Rakesh Kapur, Founder Cooperative Development Forum Suresh Prabhu, founder member Sahakar Bharathi Satish Marathe, National Dairy Development Board chairman Meenesh Shah, Cooperative development federation president Ram Reddy, Economist from Kerala Dr TM Thomas Isaac, Founder president Lok Satta Jayaprakash Narayan, former agriculture secretary and former chairman IRMA and NDDB T Nanda Kumar, chairman NCDFI Mangaljit Rai, director SEWA bank Jayshree, director FishMARC V Vivekanandanm chairperson SEWA group Mirai Chattarjee, director IRMA Umakanth Dash, IRMA professor C Shambu Prasad and others.
Welcoming the Supreme Court judgement, the panel speakers said that the cooperative societies were the state subject as per the Constitution. Quoting article 19 (1)(c), they reminded that it was the fundamental right of every citizen to form a cooperative society. The Anand declaration also said that the country laid the foundation for the world’s biggest cooperative movement in the world and added the cooperative sector was considered a massive contributor to the national economy.
NAFSCOB chairman K Ravinder Rao urged the Union Ministry of Cooperation to relook into the recent amendment to the Banking Regulation (BR) Act in the wake of Supreme Court judgement as certain provisions would infringe the rights of the states. He said that part 2 of the BR Act deals with the management and share capital, which should be left to the states to decide, by which, there would not be any legal hassles.
