NCUI GC gives extension to Mahajan; matter may go to CRCS

Amid dissent from two Governing Council members, the NCUI Board granted an extension to Sudhir Mahajan as the Chief Executive of the national apex body of cooperatives, NCUI, for two more years.

Mahajan’s tenure is coming to an end on 29th February 2024, and in the latest GC meeting, his extension was on the agenda. Talking to the Indian Cooperative, NCUI Chairman Dileep Sanghani confirmed that the Board, with a majority, passed the agenda and accorded two years’ extension to Sudhir Mahajan.

Sanghani, who is down with a cold and cough, informed this correspondent on the phone from Gujarat that it was Uday Joshi who expressed his dissent first, which was later seconded by Mangal Jeet Rai.

“The Board has taken their dissents in good faith and has recorded the same, but since the majority view was in favour of giving him an extension, the Board sided with the majority view,” underlined Sanghani.

Sanghani was, however, clueless about the role of the Central Registrar in case of a lack of unanimity in the Board decision. One of the dissenters did point out that in cases of dissent, the matter is referred to the Central Registrar, who takes the final call.

Sources said the decision of his extension was raised in the 214th meeting of the governing council held on 20th February 2024, but due to the opposition of NCUI GC members Mangal Jit Rai and government nominee Uday Joshi, the other board members entrusted NCUI Chairman Dileepbhai Sanghani to make a final decision on the matter.

In the board meeting, a few directors including Sunil Kumar Singh, Manvendra Singh, Guru Pratap Kushalpur were connected virtually, and the rest of the GC members including Chandra Pal Singh Yadav, Bijendra Singh were physically present in the meeting.

In his dissent note, NCUI Government Nominee and Sahakar Bharati National General Secretary argued that, “There is no merit in the Agenda Note cited above, which has not mentioned any logical reasoning for the extension of services of Sh Sudhir Mahajan as Chief Executive NCUI. The extension of services is not a rule, but it can be an exception in an extraordinary situation”.

“Here there is no extraordinary situation for the extension of services of Mahajan as NCUI Chief Executive,” Joshi said while opposing the agenda related to the extension of CE.

It bears recall that Mahajan is a 2005 batch IAS officer who retired from the services of the Andaman & Nicobar government before joining as NCUI CE.