Ex-Amul Chairman Vipulbhai M Chaudhary to Supreme Court: Was voted out due to politics

NEW DELHI: Vipulbhai M Chaudhary, former chairman of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation that markets its products under the Amul brand, has told the Supreme Court that he was voted out of office within days of attending a meeting of Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi, alleging a political design while challenging his ouster.

Vipulbhai M Chaudhary had switched loyalties to turn an acolyte of then Gujarat CM Narendra Modi, but the Congress brass kept trying to woo its former member back into the party fold. A bench comprising Justices Anil R Dave and Kurian Joseph on Tuesday began hearing Chaudhary’s plea.

Chaudhary was voted out by the board through a no-confidence motion on December 12, 2013, and the Gujarat HC dismissed his plea against his ouster in February.

In written submissions to the top court, Chaudhary narrated a sequence of events claiming that soon after his meeting with Gandhi, RS Sodhi, MD of Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation summoned a meeting of the board of directors at Anand to approve a noconfidence motion against him.

Chaudhary — who was appointed chairman on August 18, 2012 — moved the high court against convening of the meeting but it was finally allowed on December 4, 2013 and a resolution voting him out was passed a day later.

The political divide spilled over into the court room on Tuesday, when senior advocate and former law minister during the Congress-led UPA regime Kapil Sibal took on top government lawyers, including Tushar Mehta, to defend Chaudhary. Sibal argued that equity and common law principles would not apply to elected offices. If there was no express provision for removal of an elected member, he could not be removed. After all, a society was only governed by an agreement between members for conduct of business, he said. “This is not about personalities, but about the dignity of a procedure and the dignity of the democratic process,” Sibal said. Tushar Mehta contested this stand. He will further argue his case on November 18.