Union Territories & Panchayats
State law may govern the incorporation, regulation, and winding-up of co-operative societies, based on the principles of voluntary formation, democratic member-control, member-economic participation, and autonomous functioning.
This lays down the core values a co-operative society is meant to embody - voluntary membership, democratic control by its own members, and genuine autonomy from outside interference - as guiding principles for how states regulate them. As with the rest of this Part, this provision is not currently operative for ordinary state-registered co-operatives following the 2021 Supreme Court ruling.
These principles - voluntary formation and democratic member-control in particular - reflect the internationally-recognised co-operative movement values that genuine co-operatives (as opposed to purely government-controlled bodies) are meant to embody.