Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022

October 12, 2022

The Union Cabinet recently approved changes to the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002.

Key facts

The Central Government approved the Multi-State Cooperative Societies (Amendment) Bill, 2022.
It incorporates the 97^th Constitutional Amendment, which provided constitutional status to cooperative societies in India.
The aim of the recently approved legislation is to rationalize the role of multi-state cooperative societies and increase their members’ participation. This is done to increase public’s faith in these institutions.
In order to realize this goal, the legislation seeks to boost transparency and accountability and improve governance in multi-state cooperative societies.
To improve the governance of these cooperative societies, the amendment Bill proposes the establishment of Cooperative Election Authority, Cooperative Information Officer, and Cooperative Ombudsman.
The Cooperative Election Authority will ensure that elections in cooperative societies are conducted in a fair, free and timely manner. In order to bring electoral discipline, the amendment Bill proposes barring offenders for three years.
The Cooperative Ombudsman will provide mechanism for the redressal of grievances of members in an organized manner.
The Cooperative Information Officer will increase transparency by providing access to information to the members of cooperatives in a timely manner.
In order to boost ease of doing business in the sector, the legislation proposes to shorten the registration period. It also allows applicants to seek extra time of 2 months to rectify mistakes. It also digitizes the submission and issuance of documents.
The bill proposes the inclusion of co-opted directors with experience in the field of banking, management, cooperative management and finance in the board of the multi-state cooperative societies.
To boost funding for multi-state cooperative societies, the bill has provisions for the issuance of non-voting shares.
The Rehabilitation, Reconstruction & Development Fund will be set up to revitalize struggling cooperative societies.
The bill seeks to increase accountability of multi-state cooperatives by improving the auditing mechanism.