You are a Company Secretary in Practice. One of your clients approached for registration of Society. As your staff is not aware of the provisions regarding drafting Bye-laws for the Societies, explain him, how Societies

A society may be defined as an association of persons united together by mutual consent to deliberate, determine and act jointly for same common purpose. When a charitable organization intends to have an open participation of large number of people in its functioning and decision making, it must be registered as a Society. Societies have been envisaged as welfare and charitable associations of people having a broad-based membership and comparatively more democratic and transparent set up as compared to such set ups as public charitable trusts. A Society and a Company are different legal entities having distinct objectives and regulatory frameworks. A Society is generally formed for charitable, literary, scientific, educational, cultural, social welfare or similar non-profit purposes and is governed by the Societies Registration Act, 1860 or the corresponding State enactments. A Company is incorporated under the Companies Act, 2013 or under any previous companies act and may be established either for profit-making purposes or, in the case of a Section 8 Company, for charitable and non-profit objectives. A Society is managed through a Governing Body, Managing Committee or Executive Committee elected by its members, whereas a Company is managed through a Board of Directors. Registration of a Society is carried out before the Registrar of Societies, whereas a Company is incorporated by the Registrar of Companies under the Ministry of Corporate Affairs. According to Section 20 of the Societies Registration Act, 1860, the following societies can be registered under the Act: 'charitable societies, military orphan funds or societies established at the several presidencies of India, societies established for the promotion of science, literature, or the fine arts, for instruction, the diffusion of useful knowledge, the diffusion of political education, the foundation or maintenance of libraries or reading rooms for general use among the members or open to the public, or public museums and galleries of paintings and other works of art, collection of natural history, mechanical and philosophical inventions, instruments or designs.' The main instrument of any society is the memorandum of association and rules and regulations. All promoters should sign each page of the memorandum and the signature should be witnessed by competent officers/professionals with their rubber/official stamp and complete address. The Memorandum should contain name, registered office, area of operation, objects, name of members of governing body and names of promoters. The Rules and Regulations should include all the provisions that would regulate functioning of the proposed Society; it should comprise membership, powers and responsibilities of office-bearers, meetings, quorum of meetings, termination of membership, operation of bank account and financial year, procedure of dissolution or merger of Society if so required, and other general rules required to manage the society. According to the provisions of Societies Registration Act, 1860, minimum seven or more adult persons can form a Society. For a national level Society eight persons from seven different states would be required as promoters. An authorised person from among the promoters must apply to the concerned Registrar with preferably three alternative names of the proposed Society so as to avoid any inconvenience if the envisaged name has already been allotted to some other Society. Individuals (excluding minors but including foreigners), partnership firms, companies and registered societies are eligible to form a Society. Registration can be done either at the state level (i.e., in the office of the Registrar of Societies) or at the district level (in the office of the District Magistrate or the local office of the Registrar of Societies). A society registered under the Act enjoys the status of a legal entity apart from the members constituting it. A society so registered is a legal person just as an individual but with no physical existence. As such it can acquire and hold property and can sue and be sued. The society should be registered under the Act to acquire the status of juridical person. When the society is registered, it and its members become bound to the same extent, as if each member had signed the memorandum. A society, registered under this Act, must confine its activities to the sphere embraced by its objects. An unregistered society cannot claim benefits under the Income-tax act. All societies in India have to be registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860. By and large, the registration and filing procedures are similar in all the states. The only difference is that in some states there is a little more paperwork than the others.