12Societies enabled to alter, extend or abridge their purposes

Whenever it shall appear to the governing body of any society registered under this Act, which has been established for any particular purpose or purposes, that it is advisable to alter, extend, or abridge such purpose to or for other purposes within the meaning of this Act, or to amalgamate such society either wholly or partially with any other society, such governing body may submit the proposition to the members of the society in a written or printed report, and may convene a special meeting for the consideration thereof according to the regulations of the society;

but no such proposition shall be carried into effect unless such report shall have been delivered or sent by post to every member of the society ten days previous to the special meeting convened by the governing body for the consideration thereof, nor unless such proposition shall have been agreed to by the votes of three-fifths of the members delivered in person or by proxy, and confirmed by the votes of threefifths of the members present at a second special meeting convened by the governing body at an interval of one month after the former meeting.

STATE AMENDMENT

Assam

Insertion of new sections 12A,12B and 12C in Act XXI of 1860.- After section 12 of the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (XXI of 1860), the following shall be inserted, namely:--

"12A. Change of name.--Any society registered under this Act may, with the consent of not less than two-thirds of the total number of its members' by a resolution at a general meeting convened for the purpose and subject to the provisions of section 12B, change its name.

12B. Notice of change of name.--(1) Notice in writing of every change of name, signed by the Secretary and, by seven members of the society changing its name, shall be sent to the Registrar;

(2) If the proposed name is identical with that by which any other existing society has been registered or, in the opinion of the Registrar, so nearly resembles such name as to be likely to deceive the public, the Registrar shall refuse to register the change of name.

(3) Save as provided in sub-section (2), the Registrar shall, if he is satisfied that the provisions of this Act in respect of change of name have been complied with, register the change of name and the change of name shall have effect from the date of such registration.

12C. Effects of change of name.--The change in the name of a society registered under this Act shall not affect any rights or obligations of the society or render defective any legal proceeding by or against the society, and any legal proceeding which might have been continued or commenced by or against it by its former name may be continued or commenced by or against it by its new name".

[Vide Assam Act 14 of 1948, s. 2]

Orissa

Amendment of a section 12, Act (21 of 1860).--In section 12 of the principal Act--

(a) in the first paragraph after the words "any other society" the words " or whenever the governing body of any such society decides to change the name of the society" shall be inserted;

(b) after the second paragraph the following proviso shall be inserted, namely:--

"Provided that no proposition for amalgamation shall be carried into effect unless it has been considered, agreed to and confirmed by all the concerned societies in the manner prescribed in this section".

[Vide the Orissa Act 8 of 1969, s. 3]

Orissa

Insertion of new sections 12-A, 12-B and 12-C, Act 21 of 1860.--After section 12 of the principal Act the following new sections shall be inserted, namely:--

12-A. Registration of change of name.--(1) Where a proposition for change of name has been agreed to and confirmed in the manner prescribed by section 12, a copy of the proposition so agreed to and confirmed shall be forwarded to the Registrar of Societies for registering the change of name. If the proposed name is identical with that by which any other existing society has been registered or in the opinion of the Registrar so nearly resembles the name of such other society as is likely to deceive the public or the members of either society, the Registrar shall refuse to register the change of name.

(2) Save as provided in sub-section (1), the Registrar shall, if he is satisfied that the provisions of this Act in respect of the change of name have been complied with, register the change of name and issue a certificate of registration altered to meet the circumstances of the case. On the issue of such certificate the change of name shall be complete.

(3) The Registrar shall charge for any copy of a certificate issued under sub-section (2) a fee of rupee one and all fees so paid shall be accounted for to the State Government.

12-B. Effect of change of name.--The change in the name of a society shall not affect any rights or obligations of the society or render defective any legal proceeding by or against the society; and any legal proceeding which might have been continued or commenced by or against it by its former name may be continued or commenced by or against it by the new name.

12-C. Registration of change of name effected before commencement of the societies Registration Amendment.--If any society registered under this Act has, before the date of the coming into force of the Societies Registration (Orissa Amendment) Act, 1969 intimated to the Registrar the change of its name and if the Registrar has recorded such change the Registrar may, notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, on an application made by the society in this behalf and on payment of fees as provided in sub-section (3) of section 12-A register the change of such name and issue a certificate to the society under sub-section (2) of the said section. On the issue of such certificate the change shall be deemed to be complete from the date on which such change was recorded by the Registrar."

[Vide the Orissa Act 8 of 1969, s. 4]

Orissa

Amendment of section 12A.--In the principal Act, in section 12A,--

(a) for sub-section (1), the following sub-sections shall be substituted, namely:--

"(1) Where a proposition for change of name has been agreed to and confirmed in the manner prescribed by section 12, a copy of the proposition so agreed to and confirmed shall be forwarded to the Registrar of Societies for registering the change of name".

(1A) The Registrar of Societies may refuse to register the change of name, if he is of the opinion that the proposed change of name is undesirable for any of the reasons mentioned in section 3A.".

(b) after sub-section (3), the following sub-section shall be inserted, namely:--

"(4) if, through inadvertence or otherwise a society is registered by a name which is identical with or, which in the opinion of the Registrar of Societies so nearly resembles the name by which any other existing society has been previously registered under this Act or any body corporate which has been incorporated or registered under any other law for the time being in force or any body constituted by the Government or any local authority the Registrar of Societies may after hearing the party concerned direct the society to change the name and the society shall change its name within a period of three months from the date of issue of the direction in accordance with the provisions of this Act, or such longer period as the Registrar of Societies may think fit to allow.".

[Vide the Orissa Act 6 of 2013, s. 3]

Insertion of a new section.-- In the principal Act, after section 12-C, the following section shall be inserted, namely:--

12-D. Registrar's power to cancel registration in certain circumstance.--(1) Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act, the Registrar may, be order in writing , cancel the registration of any society on any of the following grounds, namely:--

(a) the registration of the society, or its name or change of name is contrary to the provisions of this Act or of any other law for the time being in force; or

(b) its activities or, opposed activities have been, or are subversive of the objects of the society or proposed to public policy; or

(c) the registration certificate has been obtained by misrepresentation of fact or fraud; or

(d) the society fails to comply the direction issued under sub-section (4) of section 12-A:

Provided that no order of cancellation of registration of any society shall be passed until the society has been given a reasonable opportunity of altering its name or objects or of showing cause against the action proposed to be taken in regard to it.".

[Vide the Act Orissa Act 6 of 2013, s. 4]

Union territory of Ladakh

Section 12.--

(i) after "any other society", insert "or whenever the governing body of any such society decides to change the name of the society"; and

(ii) after the words "after the formal meeting" insert--

"Provided that no proposition for amalgamation shall be carried into effect unless it has been considered, agreed to and confirmed by all concerned societies in the manner prescribed in this section.".

Insertion of new sections--

After section 12, insert--

"12A. Registration of change of name.--(1) Where a proposition for change of name has been agreed to and confirmed in the manner prescribed by section 12, a copy of the proposition so agreed to and confirmed shall be forwarded to the Registrar for registering the change of name and if the proposed change in the name is in his opinion undesirable for any of the reasons mentioned in section 3A, the Registrar shall refuse to register the change of name.

(2) Save as provided in sub-section (1), the Registrar shall, if he is satisfied that the provisions of this Act in respect of change of name have been complied with, register the change of name and issue a certificate of registration altered to meet the circumstances of the case, and on the issue of such a certificate the change of name shall be complete.

(3) The Registrar shall charge for any copy of a certificate issued under sub-section (2), a fee of rupee five hundred and all fees so paid shall be accounted for to the Administration of the Union territory of Ladakh.

(4) If, through inadvertence or otherwise, a society is registered by a name which should not have been registered (due regard being had to the provisions of section 3A), the Registrar may, after hearing the party concerned direct the society to change the name; and the society shall change its name within a period of three months from the date of the direction in accordance with the provisions of this Act, or such longer period as the Registrar may think fit to allow.

12B. Effect of change of name.--The change in the name of society shall not affect any rights or obligations of the society or render defective any legal proceeding by or against the society and any legal proceeding which might have been continued or commenced by or against it by its former name may be continued or commenced by or against it by its new name.

12C. Maintenance of accounts and their balancing and accounting.--(1) Every governing body entrusted with the management of the affairs of a society registered under this Act shall keep regular accounts.

(2) Such accounts shall be kept in such form as may be approved by the Registrar, and shall contain such particulars as may be prescribed by rules.

(3) The accounts shall be balanced each year on the 31st day of March or such other day as may be fixed by the Registrar.

(4) The accounts shall be audited annually in such manner as may be prescribed by rules and by a person who is a Chartered Accountant within the meaning of the Chartered Accountants Act, 1949 (38 of 1949), or by such persons as may be authorised in this behalf by the Administration of the Union territory of Ladakh.

12D. Auditor's duty to prepare balance sheet and report irregularities, etc.--(1) It shall be the duty of every auditor auditing the accounts of a society under section 12C to prepare balancesheet and income and expenditure account and to forward a copy of the same to the Registrar.

(2) The auditor shall in his report specify all cases of irregular, illegal or improper expenditure or failure or omission to recover money or other property belonging to the society or of loss or waste of money or other property thereof, and state whether such expenditure, failure, omission, loss or waste was caused in consequence of branch of trust or misapplication or any other misconduct on the part of the governing body or any other person.".

[Vide Union Territory of Ladakh Reorganisation (Adaptation of Central Laws) Second Order, 2020, vide Notification No. S.O.3805(E), dated (26-10-2020).]