Cooperative societies occupy a unique constitutional position post the 97th Amendment. Analyze this in the context of Central intervention in the Sahara cooperative societies' depositor refund process.

The Constitution (97th Amendment) Act, 2011 inserted Part IXB, made forming cooperatives a right under Article 19(1)(c) and added Article 43B, while leaving "cooperative societies" in the State List and multi-state societies with the Union [1]. This split position explains both the Centre's authority and its limits in the Sahara refund process.

The unique constitutional position

• Dual jurisdiction: state-confined societies are a State subject; Multi-State Cooperative Societies (MSCS) are Union subjects, governed by the MSCS Act, 2002, amended in 2023 to add an Election Authority and a revival fund [2].
• Constitutionalised autonomy: cooperatives shifted from a purely statutory creature to a body with constitutional backing for democratic, autonomous functioning [1].
• Judicially trimmed: Part IXB's operation was confined to multi-state cooperatives, since state cooperatives cannot be regulated by Parliament without ratification [1].

How Sahara reflects this position

• All four Sahara societies — Sahara Credit (Lucknow), Saharayan Universal (Bhopal), Humara India (Kolkata) and Stars Multipurpose (Hyderabad) — are multi-state entities, so the Central Registrar of Cooperative Societies and the Ministry of Cooperation could legitimately act [3].
• The Centre's competence was still not self-executing: funds came only after the Supreme Court's order of 29.03.2023 releasing Rs 5,000 crore from the Sahara-SEBI Refund Account, monitored by Justice R. Subhash Reddy [4].
• The CRCS-Sahara Refund Portal, launched on 18 July 2023, has disbursed about Rs 8,783 crore to over 40 lakh depositors against 1.45 crore applications, with a Rs 50,000 ceiling and Aadhaar-seeded transfers [3][5].
• Gaps persist: a modest cap against huge claims, KYC-related deficiencies requiring resubmission, and no comparable central remedy for purely state-level societies.

Sahara thus shows the 97th Amendment's design working as intended — Union reach over multi-state cooperatives, state autonomy preserved — with courts supplying the missing enforcement. Strengthening depositor-protection norms and audit under the MSCS framework, alongside cooperative federalism in spirit, would let "Sahakar se Samriddhi" secure the small saver without diluting cooperative autonomy.