The Gujarat High Court today issued a notice to Managing Director of the cooperative body which owns iconic dairy brand 'Amul' on a petition challenging his appointment by the State Government.
The notice was issued to Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF) Managing Director R S Sodhi, seeking response to a petition filed by Chairman of a district cooperative milk producers union challenging his appointment. A notice was also issued to state co-operative Registrar.
The petition was filed by Mogha Desai, Chairman of Valsad District Cooperative Milk Producers Union and one of the 17 directors on GCMMF board. Desai is one of the directors who has not backed the no-confidence motion moved against GCMMF Chairman Vipul Chaudhary.
The petition has challenged the appointment of Sodhi and sought court direction to the Registrar and state authorities to start action against his "illegal" appointment.
Justice A J Desai issued notices to the Registrar, GCMMF and Sodhi and fixed December 11 for next hearing.
The petitioner's counsel argued that appointment of Sodhi as MD was done without undertaking any recruitment process. No applications were invited from employment exchange or any other sources and Sodhi was named to the top post unilaterally and without following the due process, he said.
The appointment of MD of GCMMF, which has an annual turnover of Rs 13,700 crore and on which the livelihood of more than 30 lakh milk producer-farmers depends, should not have been done in such a manner, the petitioner argued.
The petition comes at a time when the High Court has already heard and reserved its order on a plea moved by Chaudhary against a meeting of GCMMF called to discuss the no-confidence motion against him.
Established in 1973, GCMMF is India's largest food product marketing organisation which clocked an annual turnover of USD 2.54 billion in 2012-13. Its daily milk procurement is about 13 million litres from across Gujarat.
