R SOMAN Vs. S PUSHPARAJAN

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard counsel for the appellant, counsel for respondents 1 to 3 and the learned Government Pleader on behalf of respondent No. 5.

(2.) The petitioner in O. P. 12913 of 1999 is the appellant. He filed the Original Petition praying for the issue of a writ of certiorari to quash the order Ext. P1 passed by the Arbitrator under the Cooperative Societies Act and rejecting the objection to the maintainability of the arbitration suit raised by him and for other consequential reliefs. The learned Single Judge dismissed the Original Petition upholding the finding of the Arbitrator marked Ext. P1. This decision is challenged in this Writ Appeal.

(3.) Three members of Panathura Coir Vyavsaya Cooperative Society filed an arbitration case before the Arbitrator under S.69 of the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act. In that arbitration case, they wanted a declaration that an election held on 25.6.1998 to elect members to the Managing Committee of the Society was void and restraining defendants 3 to 9 to the arbitration case from exercising any rights as elected members of the Managing Committee of the Society. Along with that arbitration case the plaintiffs, who are respondents 1 to 3 herein produced a challan for payment of a sum of Rs. 500/- as the fees for deciding the dispute raised by them in terms of R.67 of the Kerala Cooperative Societies Rules. The objection raised by the appellant before the Arbitrator was that since three members had joined together to file an arbitration case the fee payable in terms of R.67 of the Cooperative Societies Rules was Rs. 500/- per head and since only a sum of Rs. 500/- had been paid in the place of Rs. 1500/-, the arbitration case was liable to be rejected on being found that it was not maintainable. The arbitrator took the view that the payment of Rs. 500/- in terms of R.67 of the Kerala Cooperative Societies Rules was sufficient in the light of the reliefs prayed for in arbitration case and hence the preliminary objection lacked merit and the arbitration case was maintainable.