ABDUL LATHEEF Vs. JOINT REGISTRAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Writ Petition has been referred by a learned Single Judge of this Court to a Division Bench.

(2.) In the Writ Petition, the prayer is that election to the General Body of the 3rd respondent society shall not be held unless all the members of the society have been furnished with share certificates. It is also prayed that unless the members are required to bring the share certificates at the time of voting for the purpose of correctly identifying the voters, election to the General Body of the society shall not be held. The General Body of the society has passed a resolution to this effect as per Ext. P1 dated 20-7-1989. The petitioner wants respondents l and 2, namely, the Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Kollam, and the Returning Officer, to implement the above said resolution of the General Body of the society. The learned Single Judge was of the view that imposition of such a condition on a voter to bring share certificates for the purpose of correctly identifying the voter was not warranted by the provisions of the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act, or by R.35 of (he Rules. The learned Single Judge was not inclined to accept the view expressed by another learned Single Judge of this Court in O.P. No. 7414 of 1989. In that case a direction was given to the Returning Officer to state in the notice of election that each voter should bring his share certificate to establish his identity. Of course, it was not stated, in the order in O.P. No. 7414 of 1989 what would happen if the share certificate was not produced by the voter.

(3.) A question whether such a condition could be imposed, in addition to the procedure mentioned in R.35 of the Rules came up for consideration before Sukumaran, J. in Gopalan v. Joint Registrar of Cooperative Societies, 1985 KLT 446 . In that case, such a condition was imposed by the paid Secretary of the society. The learned Single Judge after referring to R.35(j) of the Rules, which deals with the procedure for identification of the voter, observed as follows: