97th Amendment Act
Context:
- The Supreme Court struck down certain provisions of the Constitution (97th Amendment) Act, 2011.
97th Constitutional amendment :
- Made right to form cooperative societies a part of fundamental right under Article 19(1)(c).
- Introduced Part IX B to the Constitution, which laid down several stipulations for the state legislations governing cooperative societies.
Government arguments:
- they were injecting ‘professionalism’ and autonomy into the functioning of the societies.
- Lack of accountability by the members has led to poor services and low productivity.
- Even elections are not held on time. Co-operatives need to run on “well-established democratic principles”
Court Judgement
- co-operative societies come under the “exclusive legislative power” of State legislatures.
- Part IX B, which consists of Articles 243ZH to 243ZT, has “significantly and substantially impacted” State legislatures’ “exclusive legislative power” over its co-operative sector under Entry 32 of the State List to over the co-operative sector.
- the Amendment was passed without ratification from the States.
Court Judgement on Multi state cooperative:
- the court did not strike down the portions of Part IXB of the Amendment concerning ‘Multi State Cooperative Societies’ due to the lack of ratification.
- “When it comes to Multi State Co-operative Societies (MSCS) with objects not confined to one State, the legislative power would be that of the Union of India which is contained in Entry 44 List I (Union List).
- It is declared that Part IXB of the Constitution is operative only insofar as it concerns multi-State cooperative societies both within the various States and in the Union Territories