Q.Define a cooperative society.
A cooperative society is a voluntary association of persons — usually people of limited means, such as farmers, weavers, small traders, salaried employees or consumers — who join together not to maximise profit, but to promote their common economic interests through mutual help. The guiding idea is that what a single member finds difficult to achieve alone (buying inputs cheaply, obtaining fair credit, selling produce at a reasonable price, or securing decent housing) becomes possible when many such persons pool their resources and act together — often summed up as "each for all and all for each," or organised self-help through mutual help.
Legally, a cooperative society acquires the status of a distinct legal person, separate from its members, only on registration under the relevant Cooperative Societies Act — in Tamil Nadu, the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies Act, 1983, operating within the framework the central Cooperative Societies Act, 1912 originally established (cooperation being a State subject under India's federal structure). Once registered, the society can own property, enter into contracts, and sue and be sued in its own name, and its existence continues unaffected by changes in its individual membership.
A cooperative society is a voluntary association of persons, usually of limited means, who join together to promote their common economic interests through the principle of self-help through mutual help, and which acquires the status of a separate legal body corporate on registration under the relevant Cooperative Societies Act.
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