Q.Discuss the significance of the office of the Commissioner and Registrar of Co-operative Societies for the co-operative movement.

The combined office is described as the pivot of the co-operative movement because it gives the sector both regulation and policy leadership from one authority.

The significance of the combined office of the Commissioner for Co-operation and Registrar of Co-operative Societies can be judged by asking what the co-operative movement would be like without it. Co-operative societies collect the savings of ordinary members and receive help from banks and the State; if there were no public authority to register, audit, and supervise them, members would have little assurance that their money was safe or that the society was being run honestly. It is precisely because this office exists that a co-operative society is trustworthy enough for people to join it and pool their resources.

The first source of the office's importance is the sheer range of the Registrar's powers over the life of a society. As Registrar, the officer controls a society's entire life-cycle: he gives it legal birth by registration; he keeps it healthy through the annual audit under Section 81 and through inquiry and inspection under Sections 83 and 84; he enforces honesty by surcharge under Section 88; he provides, through Section 91, the special forum in which the society's disputes are decided; he can rescue a failing society by superseding its committee under Section 78; and, where nothing else will serve, he can wind up the society under Sections 102 and 103 and cancel its registration. No other single authority has such complete oversight of a society from its beginning to its end.

The second source of importance is the Commissioner's leadership of the movement as a whole. As Commissioner, the same officer heads the Co-operation Department, exercises superintendence and control over all the subordinate registrars, advises the Government on co-operative policy and law, promotes co-operative education and training, and works to strengthen weak societies and extend co-operation into new fields. This gives the movement not only firm regulation of individual societies but also steady, State-wide policy direction and encouragement. …