Nikhil Rohidas
I am from Mumbai. My doubt is if an associate member could become a chairman/secretary. To ascertain the same at my level I went through the Bye laws and got the following details
In case of an associate member, non-submission of the no-objection certificate and undertaking, as prescribed under these bye-laws, by the member.
(vi) (vii) (viii) (v) he is not an Active member he does not reside in the society or he has Restrictions on Rights of Associate and Nominal Members 25. No Associate member shall have any rights or privileges of an Active member except as provided under Section 27(2) of the Act. i.e. where a share of a society is held jointly by more than one person the person whose name stands first in the share certificate, if present, shall have the right to vote.
But in his absence the person whose name stands second, and in the absence of both, the person whose name stands next, and likewise, in the absence of the preceding persons the person whose name is next on the share certificate, who is present and who is not a minor, shall have the right to vote.
No right of membership to an associate member except that under Section 27 (2) of the Act. 26. A nominal member shall have no rights such as member. No rights of membership
I C Naik
I am very glad to see you trying hard to find an answer to question which has been confused the most by authorities. if You take time and serf on www.indiancooperative.com and search “Associate Member” you will find this confusion unfolding in my blogs. but that will take time. So I will discuss it here once again.
The bye Laws have phrase appearing in several bye-laws namely subject to the provisions of “the Act, the Rules and these Bye laws” So one feels a huge labour lost in referring to Bye laws as he needs to start browsing the law and Rules ( very few does it, as t is also not easy to lay one’s hands on authentic updated version of both. Commissioner’s website has Act updated til 1986.)
For rights of Associate Member I quote below Section 24(2) of MCS Act 1960.
A nominal member shall ordinarily not have any of the privileges and rights of a member, but such a member, or an associate member, may, subject to the provisions of sub-section (8) of section 27, have such privileges and rights and be subject to such liabilities of a member, as may be specified in the by-laws of the society.
S 27(8) is about no rights to Nominal Members.
Then you read the latest new Rules on Elections to Committees of Societies.
I quote Rule 20 and Proviso no 2 below:
20.Nomination of candidates.— (1) Any member whose name appears in the final list of voters may be nominated as the candidate for the election to fill a seat, if he is qualified to be chosen under the provision of the Act, rules and the bye-laws of concerned society:
Provided further that, in case of associate members of co-operative housing society and cooperative premises society, the member whose name stands first in the share certificate shall be eligible to be nominated as candidate for the election. In absence of such person whose name stands second as associate member and in the absence of both, the person whose name stands next and likewise in the absence of the preceding persons the person whose name is next on the share certificate, who is not a minor shall be eligible to be nominated as candidate for the election.
So like snake-ladder you come back to bye laws where you come across bye laws quoted by you. Bye law 25 is an embargo on any right to Associate except Voting in GBM where original is absent.
Authorities may allow nomination of Associate going by Rule 20. If An Associate contests and wins and becomes Chairman a defeated original member petitioning before Registrar to unseat him as Committee member quoting Bye Law number 25, there could be a huge embarrassment.
So where does Associate Member stand? There are many other stories on Associate Member on www.indiancooperative.com