M NATARAJ Vs. STATE OF KARNATAKA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONERS are members of the 3rd respondent-association, a Society registered under the Karnataka Societies Registration Act, 1960. Petitioners claim that they were the office-bearers in the committee of management that had been elected by the general body in an election that had been held during the year 1997 and were in office, when the term was put to a premature end by the Government appointing an Administrator to look after the affairs of the association in the light of certain allegations levelled against the committee of management that there were manipulation of accounts etc.

(2.) IT appears that the Administrator in due course ensured that fresh elections were held, for electing a new committee and handed over charge to the new committee. The association represented by the Honorary Secretary, who is arrayed as a 3rd respondent is one such office-bearer, elected in the subsequent elections during the regime of the Administrator.

(3.) IT is the version of the petitioners that there were no irregularities committed during their tenure of management in the association and while the learned Counsel for the petitioners submits that the accounts had been duly audited by a competent auditor, who had certified that things were in order, but at the behest of the rival persons and the subsequent committee, the matter was sought to be reopened and a set of new auditors had been appointed by the succeeding committee to re-examine the accounting procedures that had been followed during the tenure of the petitioners, when they were in the management.