CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES (SPECIAL PROVISIONS)

(1) Section 53 of the Co-operative Societies Ordinance (hereinafter referred to as “the principal enactment”) shall apply in the case of every dispute of any description referred to in that section, as amended by Act No. 21 of 1949, notwithstanding that the dispute may have arisen prior to the 24th day of May, 1949 :

Provided, however, that where any matter which, by reason only of the preceding provisions of this subsection, constitutes a dispute to which the aforesaid section 53 applies, is a matter in issue in any action which at the date of the commencement of this Act is pending in any court of competent jurisdiction, nothing in the preceding provisions of this subsection shall prevent or be held or construed to prevent the hearing and determination by the court of the said matter in issue or to affect the validity or operation of the order or decree made or entered in the action.

(2) Every reference of a dispute of any description mentioned in section 53 of the principal enactment, as amended by Act No. 21 of 1949, which may heretofore have been made in purported pursuance of the provisions of that section as so amended shall be and be deemed to have been as valid and effectual as though subsection (1) of this section had been in force at the time the reference was made ; and the provisions of subsections (2) to (5) of the aforesaid section 53 shall apply and be deemed to have applied accordingly :

Provided, however, that in any case where any court of competent jurisdiction has prior to the date of the commencement of this Act made order or entered judgment holding that any dispute was not duly referred, or that any matter in issue in the action did not constitute a dispute which could have been duly referred, for decision under the aforesaid section 53, nothing in the preceding provisions of this subsection shall be construed to affect the validity of the order or decree made or entered in that case, or to authorize or enable the said matter in issue to be referred for decision under that section.