I.S.TIWANA, J. - (1.) This is last of the breed of writ petitions challenging the vires of the Haryana Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Act, 1987 (Act No. 7 of 1988), (hereinafter referred to as the Amending Act). Vide this amendment it was inter alia provided that the maximum tenure of a Managing Committee elected in terms of the Haryana Cooperative Societies Act, 1984, would be three years and with the expiry of that term, the State Government is entitled to appoint an Administrator to run the affairs of the Society and he can be so appointed for a period of four years, but not more than a year at a time. Since the term of the petitioners who had been elected as members of the Board of Directors of the Society on May 2, 1984, had expired, the State Government appointed an Administrator replacing the petitioners on January 27, 1988. Vide our judgment dated November 30, 1988, in-the connected 26 writ petitions, we have negatived the above noted challenge to the vires of the Amending Apt. This petition, however, survived on account of the additional plea raised on behalf of the petitioners which is dealt with hereunder.
(2.) The petitioners claim that their Society registered as "The Panipat Co-operative Sugar Mills Ltd., Panipat", is a Multi-State Co-operative Society in terms of the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 1984 (for short, the 1984 Act) and, therefore, neither the Haryana Co-operative Societies Act, 1984, as amended by the Amending Act is applicable to their case nor the State Government could appoint an Administrator to run the affairs of the Society as has been done vide order dated January 27, 1988; rather in terms of sub-section (3) of S.35 of the 1984 Act, they were to continue to hold office "till their successors are elected or nominated" under the Act or the rules or the bye-laws and assumed charge of their office. This stand is founded on alternative pleas in the following manner:- (i) The Society was registered in the year 1955 "under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 1942, which has been repealed by the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 1984." (ii) As per Section 2 of the later mentioned Act, the relevant part of which is reproduced hereunder, the Act applies to the Society of the petitioners:- "2. The Act shall apply to- (a) all co-operative societies, with objects not confined to one State, which were incorporated before the commencement of this Act, (i) ... ... ... ... (ii) under any other law relating to cooperative societies in force in any State . ... ... (b) ... ... ... ... ... ... ... The plea is further amplified with the assertion that "the area of operation of the sugar mills is beyond the State of Haryana and also includes the area of the erstwhile State of Pepsu and the State of Punjab. The individual persons from the District Ropar, Sangrur, Chandigarh, Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar are members and share holders of the said Mill. Besides the individual members the Co-operative Societies beyond the State of Haryana are also members of the said Sugar Mills. The area of operation at the time of registration of the sugar mill as per by-law 3 is reproduced as under:- 'Area of operation : 3. The Area of operation shall be whole of Ambala Division and Pepsu ......'" (iii) In any case, the Society became a Multi-State Co-operative Society as a consequence of the reorganisation of the State of Punjab by virtue of the provisions of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 and States Reorganisation Act, 1966. In other words, the Society is completely covered by sub-section (1) of S.95 of the 1984 Act, which reads as follows:- "95(1). Where by virtue of the provisions of Part II of the States Reorganisation Act, 1956 (37 of 1956), or any other enactment relating to reorganisation of States, any co-operative society which immediately before the day on which the reorganisation takes place had its objects confined to one State becomes as from that day, a multi-State co-operative society, it shall be deemed to be a multi-State cooperative society registered under the corresponding provisions of this Act and the bye-laws of such society shall, in so far as they are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, continue to be in force until altered or rescinded."
(3.) The respondent authorities while seriously controverting the above noted factual stand of the petitioners with the plea that neither the petitioners' Society was ever registered or functioned under the 1984 Act nor under the preceding legislation, i.e., the Multi-Unit Co-operative Societies Act, 1942, also raised the plea - apparently out of sheer panic - that the 1984 Act itself is ultra vires the Constitution of India, being beyond the legislative competence of the Parliament. In nutshell, their case is that this piece of legislation is not covered by entries 43 and 44 or any other entry in List I of Schedule 7 to the Constitution.;