LCI Learning

Share on Facebook

Share on Twitter

Share on LinkedIn

Share on Email

Share More

Rohit Sonavane   02 November 2022

Can an employee of District Central Co-operative Bank contest all elections from Gram Panchayat to Lok Sabha?

Can an employee of District Central Co-operative Bank contest all elections from Gram Panchayat to Lok Sabha?


Learning

 4 Replies

kavksatyanarayana (subregistrar/supdt.(retired))     02 November 2022

He shall resign from the coop. job and can contest as he wishes.

Rohit Sonavane   03 November 2022

Can't fight without resignation?

Rama chary Rachakonda (Secunderabad/Telangana state Highcourt practice watsapp no.9989324294 )     03 November 2022

No Government Employees can contest elections other than Co-operative Societies..

Larry Hopkins   10 November 2022

An employee of District Central Cooperative Bank (DCCB) can contest all elections from Gram panchayat to Lok Sabha. In fact, he can even contest from the President’s post if he wants to. But, he cannot contest from any other office than that of the president.
 The law says that no person shall be eligible to contest election to any public office unless he is a citizen of India. However, the law does not say anything about eligibility to contest election from the President’ position.
 In fact, Article 65A(1)(a) of the Constitution provides that “Every person who is qualified under clause (b) of sub-section (1) of section 2 of article 324 shall be eligible to be elected or appointed as President.” Clause (b) of sub section 1 of article 324 states that “every person who is a citizen of India shall be deemed to have been resident in India for the purposes of this clause.”
 Article 325 defines ‘resident’ as follows: “For the purpose of this clause, a person shall be deemed to be resident in India if he ordinarily resides therein; except that where he is employed abroad, he shall be deemed to reside in India only while he is actually engaged in the service of the Government of India or of a local authority or a corporation established by or under any law relating to the administration of justice.”
 It is clear from these provisions that an employee of DCCB can contest from the President‘s post. He may not be able to contest from any other office, including the Vice-President‘s post.
 This issue was raised before the Supreme Court in the case of M.S. Sankar v. Union of India & Ors., (2015) 4 SCC 619. The court held that the word ‘office’ in Article 65A(1) of the Constitution means the office of the President of India. Therefore, the petitioner could not contest from any other office.
 The question now arises whether an employee of a cooperative bank can contest from the President's post. We find that he cannot do so.
 Section 5 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, reads as follows: “No person shall be entitled to act as a director of a co-operative society unless he is a member thereof.” Section 8 of the same Act provides that “no person shall be eligible to act as a director or manager of a co-operative bank unless he is a member of the society concerned.”
 Therefore, an employee of a cooperative society cannot become a director or manager of its bank. Similarly, an employee of a co-operative banking society cannot become a director of its bank.
 Accordingly, we hold that an employee of a cooperative banking society cannot contest from the President‟s post.


Leave a reply

Your are not logged in . Please login to post replies

Click here to Login / Register