Co-operative Societies (Part-IX-B)

Most Mumbai families live in a co-operative housing society, pay maintenance to it and vote for its managing committee, and many buy milk from a dairy co-operative without knowing it. For decades these bodies were run under State laws and many were accused of capture by a few people or of being dissolved by the government at will. In 2011 Parliament decided that the Constitution itself should protect them. What did it add, and why did the Supreme Court later say that the addition could not apply to State co-operatives in the form Parliament passed it?

In two minutes

Part IX-B, inserted by the Ninety-seventh Amendment, gives constitutional status to co-operative societies, but in Union of India v Rajendra N. Shah (2021) the Supreme Court held it could not operate on State co-operative societies because the amendment had not been ratified by half the States as Art. 368(2) requires for changes affecting State subjects.

The rest of this chapter

The full explanation, the cheat sheet, every previous-year question at every mark weight, the quiz and the answer skeletons are part of Constitutional Law – II on LexBlox Semester. Sign in to unlock the subject, or read Module 1 of Legal Language and Writing free.