Step 2 — Application for Registration, Bye-laws and Documents Required

Once the promotion stage is complete, the group moves to the second step: making the formal application for registration. Under Section 8 of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, an application for registration must be made to the Registrar in the prescribed form. Where all the members are individuals, the application must be signed by at least ten of those persons who are qualified to be members; where the members are societies (a federal society), it must be signed by a person duly authorised on behalf of each such member-society. The application is not complete by itself — the Act requires it to be accompanied by copies of the proposed bye-laws of the society (the Act and Rules require several copies to be submitted), so that the Registrar can examine the rules the society proposes to be governed by.

The bye-laws are the internal rulebook of the society and are among the most important documents in the whole formation process. They typically set out the name and registered address of the society, its area of operation, its objects, the qualifications and mode of admission of members, the amount of share capital and the value of each share, the rights and duties of members, the constitution and powers of the managing committee, the manner of conducting meetings and elections, how surplus and dividends are dealt with, and the procedure for amendment of the bye-laws themselves. The Registrar will register the bye-laws only if they are not contrary to the Act or the Rules. …