Registration of a Co-operative Society

The Registering Authority

The State Government appoints a Registrar of Co-operative Societies for the whole State, and may appoint additional, joint, deputy and assistant Registrars to help him. In Maharashtra the head of this department is the Commissioner for Co-operation and Registrar of Co-operative Societies. The Registrar is the key authority under the Act — he registers societies, approves and amends bye-laws, supervises their working, orders audit and inquiry, and exercises many other powers. (The appointment of the Registrar is provided for early in the Act, and the provisions on registration follow soon after.)

Which Societies May Be Registered

The Act provides that a society which has as its object the promotion of the economic interests or general welfare of its members, or of the public, in accordance with co-operative principles, may be registered. In short, the society's object must be genuinely co-operative and lawful. A society may be registered with or without limited liability.

The Minimum Number of Members

One of the most frequently asked provisions concerns the minimum membership. Under Section 6 of the Act, no society (other than a federal society) can be registered unless it consists of at least ten persons who are each qualified to be members and who ordinarily live, or whose place of business is, in the area of operation of the society. A federal society (a higher-level society whose members are themselves societies) must consist of at least five societies. The idea behind requiring a minimum number is that co-operation is an association of persons, not a one-person or family business.

Procedure for Registration

The steps in registering a society are, in outline:

1. Chief promoter and provisional committee — the persons who wish to form the society hold a meeting, decide to form it, and choose a chief promoter and a provisional (ad-hoc) committee to do the registration work.
2. Choosing a name and reserving it — a suitable name is chosen and its availability is confirmed with the Registrar.
3. Application for registration — an application in the prescribed form is made to the Registrar, signed by the required number of applicants (at least ten persons, or five societies for a federal society).
4. Documents to be submitted with the application — chiefly (a) four copies of the proposed bye-laws of the society, (b) a list of applicants with their details, (c) a statement of the proposed share capital and how much each applicant has agreed to take, (d) a bank certificate showing that the entrance fees and share money collected have been deposited in a bank, and (e) other documents and information the Registrar may require.
5. Scrutiny by the Registrar — the Registrar examines the application, the bye-laws and the documents to see that the Act and the Rules are satisfied and that the object is genuinely co-operative.
6. Registration or refusal — if the Registrar is satisfied, he registers the society and its bye-laws and issues a certificate of registration. He must ordinarily dispose of the application within the time laid down; if he refuses to register, he must record his reasons and communicate them, and an appeal lies against the refusal.

Effect of Registration …