Co-operative Societies Registered Under Central Act Cannot Avail Benefits Granted By State Act - Madras HC Clarifies

A Madras High Court Bench of Justice SM Subramaniam has clarified that cooperative societies registered under the Central Act cannot avail the benefits of the stamp duty exemption and registration fee granted by the State Act.

Counsel Sunny appeared for the petitioner, while AGP T Arun Kumar appeared for the State.

In this case, a writ petition had been filed questioning the validity of an order issued by the respondent stating that the stamp duty exemption granted to the cooperative societies by the Government was not applicable to the cooperative society registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002.

In that context, the Court perused the applicable provisions of the law to conclude that the cooperative movement or area of operation, business transactions are well defined under the central act and the state act. In furtherance, the Court observed that "a multi state cooperative society registered under the central act cannot be considered as a cooperative society under the state act for the purpose of granting exemption from payment of stamp duty and registration fees."

Subsequently, the Court also observed that "the cooperative societies registered under the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies Act alone are entitled to avail the benefit of stamp duty exemption and registration fees which was granted by invoking the powers under Section 51 of the Tamil Nadu Cooperative Societies Act. Consequently, the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 are not entitled to get the benefit of the exemption from payment of stamp duty and registration fees and if at all such exemption is to be granted it must be granted by the Government of India".

The Court took the view that the petitioner was admittedly a cooperative society registered under the provisions of the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002, which is a central act and therefore, they were not entitled to avail the benefit of the stamp duty exemption and registration fee granted by the Government of Tamil Nadu.

Consequently, it was held that the petition was devoid of merits and was dismissed.

Cause Title: The Royal Lands and Nest Cooperative Housing Society Ltd. vs The Govt. of Tamil Nadu & Anr.

Click here to read/download the Judgment