The Kerala High Court has stayed for three weeks all further proceedings pursuant to the notification issued by the Kerala State Cooperative Election Commission scheduling election to the director board of the Kerala State Cooperative Bank (Kerala Bank) on September 25.
Justice Raja Vijayaraghavan passed the stay order on a petition filed by N. Subramanian, chairman, Kuruvattoor Service Cooperative Bank Ltd., Kozhikode. He contended that the process of election to the Board of Directors of the bank could be initiated only after getting the final approval of amalgamation of various district banks by the Reserve Bank of India (RBI).
The court while issuing the order pointed out that the government had found it necessary to postpone all further steps in the election process in cooperatives societies where the date of polling fell due in one month from August 23, 2020, considering the impact of the pandemic and practical difficulty in holding the elections.
The State was facing the highest spike in COVID-19 cases. If the election process was permitted to continue ignoring the directives issued by the government, it may lead to even greater community transmission, which had to be avoided. Besides, the government's application seeking time to comply with the RBI's various directives issued in connection with the amalgamation of the banks was pending before the RBI.
