Ahmedabad

In a partial relief for the newly-elected chairman of Mehsana Dairy Vipul Chaudhary, the Gujarat High Court today set aside the order prohibiting him from contesting elections of cooperative institutes for six years.

However, the court said the previous order of March 2015 under which he was disqualified for three years will remain in effect.

Justice C L Soni took into account the argument of Chaudhary’s lawyers that the Act under which the Registrar of Cooperative Societies passed the order in December 2015 could not be applied retrospectively. The case dated back to March 2015 while the Act came into force in April.

Chaudhary was re-elected as the chairman of the Mehsana- based Dudhsagar Dairy two weeks ago. His petition had pointed out that the order barring him for six years was passed after the BJP government amended the Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act, increasing the duration of disqualification.

In March last year, Chaudhary was removed as the chairman of Mehsana Dairy and disqualified for three years on the charge of irregularities. His lawyers argued that subsequent ban for six years was invalid because the amended provision came into effect in April.

As per the Supreme Court’s order on his plea, any adverse order against Chaudhary will come into effect one month after issuance. Chaudhary will have to step down as chairman today as the one-month period ended yesterday.

In another relief for him, the High Court also stayed implementation of the Registrar’s order for ten days so that he can move the Supreme Court.

In 2014, Chaudhary had been sacked as the chairman of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), the owner of Amul brand.

PTI