Reservation of certain seats on Committee of societies and election thereto

(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or in the rules made thereunder or in any bye-laws of any society, on the Committee of such society or class of societies as the State Government may, by general or special order, direct, three seats shall be reserved for,— (a) one Member belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes ; (b) one Member belonging to the Other Backward Classes ; and (c) one Member belonging to the De-notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis), Nomadic Tribes or Special Backward Classes. (2) Any individual Member of the society, or any elected Member of the Committee or a Member society or any Member of the Committee of the Member society, whether elected, co-opted or appointed under this section, belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, or Other Backward Classes or De-notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis) or Nomadic Tribes or Special Backward Classes, shall be eligible to contest the election to a reserved seat and every person who is entitled to vote at the election to the Committee shall be entitled to vote at the election to any such reserved seat. Explanation.—For the purposes of this section,— (a) a general or special order, if any, issued by the State Government under section 73-B as it existed before the date of commencement of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies (Amendment) Act, 1983, shall be deemed to have been issued under sub-section (1) of this section and shall continue to be in force until duly repealed or amended ; (b) the expression “Scheduled Castes” includes “Nav-Boudhas” ; (c) the expression “Other Backward Classes, De-notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis) and Nomadic Tribes and Special Backward Classes” means such classes or parts of or groups within such classes as are declared, from time to time, by the State government to be Other Backward Classes, De-notified Tribes (Vimukta Jatis) and Nomadic Tribes and Special Backward Classes.