HC rejects prayer for reservation in coop societies head posts

The Madras High Court today declined to order rotation-basis reservation for the posts of President and Vice-President in cooperative societies in Tamil Nadu, saying the power to do so is vested only with Parliament.
A bench, comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Pushpa Sathyanarayana, said if the plea in the petition was accepted, the logical consequence would be to amend the Constitution.
"This is the role exclusively of Parliament and not a matter where the court can step in to fill a lacuna or gap," the judges held dismissing the PIL.
Petitioner S Karuppiah, founder of Central and State government SC/ST Employees Federation, submitted that unless rotation basis reservation was provided, not a single cooperative society in the state would have a President or vide-President from SC or ST communities.

Countering this, state Advocate General of Tamil Nadu A L Somayaji submitted that there were 25,603 cooperative societies in the state. Out of 2.33 lakh elected members in these societies, 33,761 were from SC/ST communities and of them, 1,545 became Presidents and 1,984 Vice-Presidents.
Stating that there was no merit in the PIL, the bench said "the apprehensions of the petition are really without any basis, as the numbers of elected presidents and vice-presidents from SC/ST communities are 1,545 and 1984 respectively.