State of Uttar Pradesh v. Milkiyat Singh 2025 INSC 1427 -Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act

Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 - Section 5,103 - A. Section 103 of the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 does not, by itself, confer an automatic or deemed status of a multi-State cooperative society upon every society registered under a State Cooperative Societies Act merely because the parent State has undergone reorganisation. B. The applicability of Section 103 requires a factual enquiry in each case as to whether the objects of the society extend to more than one State. If the objects are found to span more than one State, the deeming fiction under Section 103 will operate and the society would be treated as a multi-State cooperative society. If the objects remain confined to only one State, the status of the society will remain unchanged. C. It would be erroneous to undertake an enquiry into the area of operation of a society for the purposes of Section 103, when the provision itself mandates an examination only of the objects of the society. Read with Section 5, it becomes evident that Section 103 is attracted only where the objects of the society extend to more than one State. It is only in such situation that the society would, by operation of law, be treated as a multi-State cooperative society.D. The residence or domicile of the members of the cooperative society has no bearing on determining whether the society is a multi-State cooperative society. E. Section 5 of the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 mandates that a society may be registered as a multiState cooperative society only when its principal objects, as reflected in its bye-laws, serve the interests of members in more than one State. It is, therefore, a pre-condition that the objects span more than one State. (Para 15)