A Chairman, three MPs and up to twenty-nine others: the statute behind the Coffee Board

Background

The Coffee Act, 1942 is the statute behind the Coffee Board of India. Section 4 says the Board set up under an Ordinance of 1940 as the Indian Coffee Market Expansion Board shall be the Coffee Board for this Act. Its membership is a Chairman appointed by the Central Government by notification; three Members of Parliament, of whom the House of the People elects two and the Council of States one; and other members too, not exceeding twenty-nine, as many as the Central Government thinks fit. Those others are picked to represent the Governments of the principal coffee-growing States, the coffee-growing industry, coffee trade interests, curing establishments, the interests of labour and of consumers, and any other interest the Central Government thinks fit. The Board is a body corporate with perpetual succession and a common seal, and the property of the former Indian Coffee Cess Committee vested in it. The Board elects a Vice-Chairman from among its own members, and holding membership does not disqualify a person from being chosen for either House of Parliament. Before taking action touching the affairs of the Board the Central Government shall ordinarily consult it, though a proviso says no action is invalid merely for want of that consultation.