PRIMARY CO OPERATIVE AGRICULTURE AND RURAL DEVELOPMENT BANK LIMITED PCARD CHANNAGIRI DAVANAGERE DISTRICT Vs. JOINT REGISTRAR OF CO OPERATIVE SOCIETIES URBAN BANKS DIVISION BANGALORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner seeks writ of certiorari to quash the endorsement dated 11-3-2005 vide Annexure-E, by which the petitioner's nomination paper is rejected by the Returning Officer (the respondent 1 herein) on the ground that the petitioner is a defaulter as on the date of filing of his nomination and to direct the respondent 1 to accept his nomination and permit him to contest the election to the Managing Committee of the 2nd respondent-Bank.

(2.) THOUGH the matter is listed for orders, the same is taken up for final bearing by consent of learned Advocates. Heard Sri Shantesh gureddi, learned Counsel appearing for the petitioner, Sri Keshava reddy, learned High Court Government Pleader, appearing on behalf of the respondent 1 and Sri Jayakurnar S. Patil, learned Senior Counsel appearing on behalf of the impleaded respondent 3 and perused the material on record.

(3.) THE brief facts of the case which are necessary for the disposal of the case, are that the petitioner herein is the Primary Co-operative Agriculture and Rural Development Bank Limited, Channagiri ('pcard' for short), which is a Co-operative Society registered under the provisions of karnataka Co-operative Societies Act, 1959 ('act' for short) represented by its President. The said PCARD' in turn is the primary member of the 2nd respondent-Bank i. e. , the Karnataka State Co- operative Agricultural and rural Development Bank Limited (KSCARD' for short), which is the Apex bank. The Managing Committee of the 2nd respondent-'kscard' will have to be constituted by the concerned 'pcards' from all over the State, and every district is entitled to send one representative ('pcard') to be represented on the Managing Committee of the 'kscard'. The respondent 1 being the Returning Officer to conduct the elections to the Managing committee for the Co-operative Society for the years 2005-06 to 2009-10 of the 2nd respondent-KSCARD issued calendar of events on 16-2-2005. The petitioner-'pcard', in its meeting held on 4-3-2005 resolved to authorise its President, Lokeshappa to represent and contest the election on its behalf. In pursuance to said resolution, Shri Lokeshappa filed his nomination on 4-3-2005 to contest the election to be held for the Managing committee of 'kscard' by representing the Davanagere and Chitradurga districts. The nomination paper filed by Lokeshappa is rejected on the ground that he was a defaulter as on 4-3-2005, inasmuch as, he did not repay the loan of Rs. 1,00,000/- obtained by him from 'pcard', Channagiri. The endorsement/order of rejection of nomination paper is produced at annexure-E which is under challenge in this writ petition.