Q.What is the minimum number of members required to register a co-operative society? Explain the requirement for a society of individuals and for a federal society.

The minimum-membership rule in Section 6 is the single most tested fact in this chapter, but it must be stated with its accompanying conditions, not as a bare number.

The minimum number of members required for registration is fixed by Section 6 of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, and it differs according to the kind of society being formed. Because this is one of the most frequently tested points in the chapter, it is worth stating not just the number but the full set of conditions attached to it.

For a society of which all the members are individuals — the ordinary case, such as a village credit society or a consumers' society — the society must consist of at least ten persons. But the number alone is not enough; three further conditions attach to those ten persons. First, they must be qualified to be members, meaning they must be competent to contract and otherwise eligible under Section 22 of the Act. Second, they must reside in, or carry on their occupation or business within, the area of operation of the proposed society, so that the society genuinely serves a community of people connected to that area. Third — and this is a distinctive Maharashtra requirement — each of the ten persons must ordinarily belong to a different family. This last condition is an important safeguard against fraud: without it, a single family could put forward its ten members as if they were ten independent persons and get a society registered that is not, in reality, a co-operative venture of a genuine community. By insisting on ten different families, the Act ensures that a real cross-section of people with a common economic interest stands behind the society.

For a federal society — that is, a society whose own members are other co-operative societies rather than individuals — the requirement is different. Such a society must have at least five societies as its members. Federal societies sit at a higher tier of the co-operative structure, co-ordinating or serving a number of primary societies, so the Act measures their minimum strength in societies rather than individuals. …