Q.To whom is an application for registration of a co-operative society made, and who must sign it? What must accompany the application?

Section 8 of the Act fixes both the authority to whom the application goes and the essentials that must go with it.

The second step in forming a co-operative society is the making of the formal application for registration, and the essentials of this step are laid down in Section 8 of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960. Getting the authority, the signatories, and the accompanying papers right is important, because an incomplete or wrongly made application will delay or defeat registration.

The application is made to the Registrar of Co-operative Societies — in practice, to the registering officer for the area exercising the Registrar's powers — and must be made in the form prescribed under the Act and Rules. As to who must sign it, the Act distinguishes between two kinds of societies. Where all the members are individuals, the application must be signed by at least ten of those persons, each of whom is qualified to be a member. Where the members are themselves societies, that is, in the case of a federal society, the application must be signed by a person duly authorised in that behalf on behalf of every such member-society. This signature requirement ties the application directly back to the minimum-membership condition in Section 6.

The application is not complete on its own. Section 8 requires it to be accompanied by copies of the proposed bye-laws of the society — the Act and Rules require that more than one copy be submitted — so that the Registrar can examine the internal rules the society proposes to be governed by and satisfy himself that they are not contrary to the Act or the Rules. The bye-laws are therefore an inseparable part of the application, not an afterthought. …