‘Why do babus’ wives hold ex officio posts in societies?’: Supreme Court | India News

NEW DELHI: Supreme Court on Monday took strong exception to bureaucrats’ wives enjoying posts in societies functioning within the administrative jurisdictions of their husbands and said such practices, a product of colonial mindset, must be forthwith discarded.
What irked a bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan was the vindictive action indirectly taken by the district magistrate of Bulandshahr, where it had been a custom since inception in 1957 till 2019 to make the wife of the officiating district magistrate or his nominee hold the office of president of the Zila Mahila Samiti, Bulandshahr.
The general body of the Samiti in Jan 2020 by a majority amended the bylaws and decided not to give its presidency to the DM’s wife by recognising her only as a patron. This change was approved by the deputy registrar of societies. After election to all posts, including the president, was held in Sept 2022, the deputy registrar sent a show-cause notice based on a secret inquiry by the city magistrate, who alleged that articles of association of the Samiti were illegally amended to gobble up the property of the organisation.
Appearing for the Samiti, senior advocate Tapesh Kumar Singh said the inquiry was conducted by the magistrate without summoning any office bearer or a visit to the Samiti office. Despite a detailed response, the deputy registrar on Feb 17, 2023, declared the amendments illegal without even granting a hearing to the parties. This order meant the DM’s wife would continue to be president of the Samiti. The body moved Allahabad HC, which dismissed its plea.
SC took umbrage and said, “Why does she want to hold the post of president of the Samiti based on her husband’s position? If she wants to be the president of the Samiti, she should join politics and contest elections.”
Appearing for UP, additional solicitor general K M Natraj told SC, govt wants to get rid of this colonial mindset and sought its permission to do so in view of the HC order.
“The colonial mindset of giving ex-official positions to family members of administrative authorities must be erased by bringing suitable amendments through a model bylaw that would clearly define the composition of the governing body of societies,” SC said. It said it would make it mandatory for all societies, whether aided or not aided by the govt, to mandatorily follow the model bylaws, failing which they would be declared non-entities under the law.
“Let an appropriate draft amendment/model bylaw be placed before the court in six weeks,” the bench said, while restraining the Samiti to carry on its work without the DM’s wife being part of the governing body.