Supreme Court Refuses To Stay Elections Of SCBA Multi-State Cooperative Housing Society, Results Subject To Court Orders

The Supreme Court on Wednesday (January 17) refused to stay the elections of the Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) Multi-State Cooperative Group-Housing Society Ltd, scheduled to take place tomorrow, i.e. January 18, 2024.

A bench comprising Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra heard the matter today urgently after the petition was orally mentioned by the petitioner's lawyer.

The petitioner challenged the order of the Delhi High Court dated January 16 which allowed the disqualified members of the SCBA Multi-State Cooperative Group-Housing Society to contest the Housing Society Elections.

The lawyer submitted that  “ If 15 board directors have been disqualified as per s. 43(2) (of the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002 ('Act of 2002'), tomorrow the elections will be challenged…they cannot come out clean because they have not conducted any GBM, they did not file any annual return , there was no financial statement filed .So there has been complete mismanagement of the society…”

The CJI, referring to the Delhi High Court Order remarked, “We cannot stall an election at this point in time. In these matters of elections, the courts have a settled rule that they don't interfere after the notification. That is what the High Court has said”

The petitioner contended that the Central registrar's order was under the statutory provisions of the 2002 Act, the Returning Officer's action in appearing before the High Court and submitting to the contrary bypasses the statutory mandates. The advocate expressed, “heavens will not fall if the elections are not postponed for a week”.

Justice JB Pardiwala asked what was the remedy when the person is disqualified. The advocate replied the remedy was under S.84,of the 2002 Act which provides for reference of disputes

The bench though refused to grant a stay on the elections, agreed to issue notice and directed that “ all steps taken herein after in pursuance of the election shall be subject to the final result of the proceeding and subject to further orders as maybe passed by this court.”

The matter will now be heard on the next Monday.

Background

The issue arose when 15 board members were disqualified for misconduct by the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies on January 13, 2024,  after their names had been published in the final list of candidates by the Returning Officer (RO) on January 11, 2024. The revised election program was published on December 28, 2023. It was contended by the disqualified members before the High Court that after the publishing of the said final list, the impugned disqualification order cannot be sustained. It was further contended that the scrutiny of the nomination forms was duly undertaken by the RO and at that relevant stage no objection was raised. Additionally, it was argued that after verification of the nomination forms, the final list was published and the said members cannot be excluded on the eve of the elections.

The High Court had observed the disqualification orders will only have a prospective effect and not effect the rights of the disqualified board members in running for the elections :

“ 8. It is a matter of record that the nominations were scrutinize by the RO and the final list was published on 11.01.2024. The impugned order passed by Respondent No. 2 being a declaration of disqualification after publication of final list of candidates on 11.01.2024 cannot affect the rights of the declared candidates, as the impugned order shall operate prospectively. In view of the statement of the RO i.e., Respondent No. 4, the present petition is disposed of directing that the elections will be conducted as per the final list of candidates published on 11.01.2024 and the Petitioners herein will not be excluded from contesting the scheduled elections.

9. We, however, reserve the right of the Petitioners as well as Respondent Nos. 7 to 9 to pursue to their statutory remedies with respect to the impugned order dated 13.01.2024 in accordance with the provisions of the Act of 2002.”

The elections will be contested by 41 candidates who have submitted their nominations for 12 unreserved seats.