THE BOARD OF DIRECTORS, KOZHINJAMPARA SERVICE CO-OPERATIVE BANK LTD. Vs. THE JOINT REGISTRAR OF CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, the Board of Directors of Kozhinjampara Service Co-operative Bank Ltd., which is a Co-operative Society registered under the provisions of the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act, 1969, has filed this writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seeking a writ of certiorari to quash Ext.P4 inspection report dated 18.01.2018 (wrongly dated as 18.01.2017) of the 3rd respondent Inquiry Officer and Ext.P7 notice dated 26.02.2018 issued by the 1st respondent Joint Registrar, whereby the members of the Board of Directors of the said Society have been asked to submit their explanations, if any, to the findings in Ext.P4 report, within seven days from the date of receipt of that notice. The petitioner has also sought for other consequential reliefs.

(2.) On 09.03.2018, when this writ petition came up for admission, the learned Government Pleader was directed to get instructions. This Court granted an interim stay of operation of Exts.P4 and P7 and all further proceedings pursuant thereto for a period of two weeks. The said interim order, which was extended from time to time, is still in force.

(3.) A counter affidavit has been filed by the 1st respondent opposing the reliefs sought for in this writ petition. Paragraphs 4 and 5 of the said counter affidavit read thus; "4. It is submitted that there was a detailed inspection conducted by the 3rd respondent Unit Inspector on 20.02.2017 and 21.02.2017 in the affairs of Kozhinjampara Service Co-operative Bank. In this inspection the Unit Inspector reported some defects of the bank to the Assistant Registrar (General), Chittur and he enquired the matter by a letter dated 05.04.2017 produced as Exhibit P2. Some of the defects noted in the detailed report was not rectified satisfactorily. The explanation of the bank in this regard was not satisfactory. There were two major defects which are not rectified as narrated below.