Let JH housing society appoint SO: HC to state

The Telangana High Court on Wednesday directed the state government to consider the request of the Jubilee Hills Cooperative House Building Society secretary A. Murali Mukund to appoint a special officer to “manage, control and supervise the affairs of the society”.

Dealing with a batch of writ petitions filed by secretary Justice T. Amarnath Goud, the court directed the Registrar of Cooperative Societies to restrain the society president B. Ravindranath and other managing committee members from interfering with the rights of the secretary in discharging his duties, roles and responsibilities provided in the society bylaws including access to the managing committee meetings.

Mukund’s counsel Rohit Pogula brought to the court’s notice that the society president and managing committee members had been taking unilateral decisions in violation of society bylaws and the Cooperative Societies Act. He referred to the appointment of honorary chairman, cases filed against the chairman for registering a plot and forcing the elected secretary to stay out of the society matters.

The court also suspended the chairman’s letter withdrawing all powers of the secretary. Earlier, the managing committee which got elected with a mandate to expose the irregularities committed by the previous committee headed by T. Chowdary, founder chairman of NTV news channel, got a shocker from Murali Mukund who the former alleged to have deviated from the mandate. The secretary lodged a complaint against the chairman stating that he was confined by the latter and was forced to share the society records. He also claimed that several records pertaining to the decisions taken by the previous committee were missing.

“We are confused over the developments. The secretary on one hand wanted the court to restore his powers and non-interference from us in discharging his role and responsibilities as Secretary. On the other hand, the same secretary wanted the court to direct the government to consider his request to appoint a special officer to manage, control and supervise the affairs,” said a managing committee member on condition of anonymity. What role will secretary or managing committee have if the special officer “manages and controls” the affairs besides supervising them, he said adding that it tantamount to superseding the elected body.

We will explore the legal options available to us, he pointed out.