Karnataka High Court directs counting of votes cast in election to Thyagaraja Co-op Bank

Bengaluru: The high court has directed the returning officer to count the votes cast in the election held on January 21, 2024, to elect the board members of Sri Thyagaraja Co-op Bank, Bengaluru.

Justice Anant Ramanath Hegde passed this order while disposing of a petition filed by B Ganganna and seven other members of the bank and also reserving liberty to the petitioners or any aggrieved person to raise objections to the validity of the electoral roll in an election petition under section 70(2)(c) of the Karnataka Co-operative Societies Act.

The petitioners had moved the court seeking a direction to redo the draft voters' list. A direction was also sought to the election officer to hold elections to the Board of the Bank after finalising the voters’ list by complying with the requirements under Rule 13-D(2-A) of the Karnataka Co-operative Societies Rules. In an interim order, the high court had permitted the returning officer to publish the calendar of events and subsequently permitted the voting to be held on January 21. However, the counting of votes and the result are withheld.

During the hearing, the court perused the provisions of the Co-op Act and the multi-layered cooperative sector. The bench noted that because of inter-dependent structure, if election to one category of society is stalled; it may have a cascading effect and may also affect the elections of the next categories of co-operative societies.

“Associate members continuing in the same status though contrary to the provisions of Sections 16 and 20 of Karnataka Cooperative Societies Act, 1959, is not a ground to invoke Article 226 of the Constitution of India with a prayer to redo the voters’ list,” the court said.

The court also said that only in exceptional circumstances, the writ courts can interfere with the election. While giving liberty to the petitioners to avail alternative remedy to challenge the validity of the electoral roll in an election petition, the court said that if such a dispute is raised, the authority under Section 70 of the Act shall examine all questions including the question relating to validity of the eligible and ineligible voters’ list and impact on the election to the Board.