N G SAMARAJU Vs. V V PATIL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) WRIT petition by persons who held the post of President and Vice-President of the Mysore Kirloskar Kelasagarara Sangha, who are aggrieved by an order passed by the 8th respondent Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Society on 11-12-2006 (copy produced as Annexure-D to the Writ Petition), disqualifying the petitioners from holding the posts of President and Vice President respectively and also disqualifying them to hold such elected post for a period of 3 years from the date of the order in exercise of his power under Section 29 (c) of the Karnataka Co-operative Societies Act, 1959.

(2.) PETITIONERS though have remedy of appeal to the higher authority namely the Deputy Registrar, as pointed out by the learned Government Pleader appearing for 8th respondent and Sri Mahesh Uppin, learned counsel ap - pearing for respondents 1 to 6 have by passed the appellate remedy and have come up with the present writ petition, contending, inter alia, that the impugned order has been passed without affording an opportunity to the petitioners; that even though a request had been made to engage the services of a counsel, such a request is declined in terms of the endorsement dated 19-12-2006 (copy at Annexure- E); that the vakalat though had been presented by the petitioners' lawyer much before the date of hearing, refusing to accept the vakalat and issuing an endorsement after the disposal of the case is in clear violation of the principles of natural justice; that certain documents had been created and the records built up to defeat the rights of the petitioners; that the order had come to be passed in violation of the principles of natural justice and it is required to be quashed.

(3.) IN the statement of objections filed on behalf of respondents 1 to 6, it is averred, inter alia, that the petitioners had tried to suppress a resolution that had been passed by the committee in its meeting held on 7-9-2006 for holding the general body meeting of the society on 30-9-2006 and on the other hand the petitioners had pressurized the Secretary not to record the proceedings of the Meeting held on 7-9-2006 but to send a false report of the proceedings to the Assistant Registrar seeking for grant of time for six months to hold a General Body Meeting on the premise that there is law and order situation etc. that it was a clear misuse of their power to pressurize the Secretary to give a wrong version to the Assistant Registrar; that it is because of this, the Registrar had passed an order permitting postponement of the General Body Meeting for three months which otherwise would not have happened; that such conduct on the part of the petitioners which amounts to an act of fraud clearly attracts the provisions of Section 29c (8) (b) of the Karnataka Co-operative Societies Act, 1959 (for short 'the Act'); that the petitioners did not even care to attend the enquiry held by the Assistant Registrar; that there is no occasion to interfere with the order and the order being an appealable order, the writ petition should not be entertained and is to be dismissed.