ARVINDBHAI KESHAVLAL PATEL Vs. HASMUKH SONI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The present Appeal is filed against the order passed in Special Civil Application No.4358/2000 by the learned single Judge on 3.5.2000 whereby the petition was disposed of at admission stage with certain observations in favour of the petitioner Shri Hasmukh Soni in that Special Civil Application, who is respondent No.1 in the present Letters Patent Appeal.

(2.) At the first look, the order appears to be innocuous as if there is no justifiable cause for Appeal, but in view of the facts which are narrated hereinbelow it becomes clear that the said order was obtained by Shri Hasmukh Soni, the petitioner of Special Civil Application No.4358/2000 wherein the present appellant was though added as respondent No.2, no notice was issued to the respondents and the impugned order was invited by the petitioner without inviting the attention of the Court to the full facts and the relevant provisions.

(3.) The history of the case is chequered one. There is a body known as "Gujarat Board of Ayurvedic and Unani Systems of Medicines" (hereinafter referred to as "the Board"). The election of the Members of said body were held on 18.11.1997. As required under law the names of elected members of the Board were published in the Government Gazette Part II dated 4.12.1997, but, for the reasons best known to the Government, the Government did not take any steps to constitute the Board fully by nominating the four members as required under Section 3 of Gujarat Medical Practitioners Act, 1963.As the Government did not discharge its duty of constituting the Board fully by nominating four members, a petition being Special Civil Application No.9973/99 came to be filed before this court (wherein the present appellant and four other elected members including Shri Hasmukh C.Vaidya were the petitioners) inter alia, praying for a writ of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, direction or order in the nature of mandamus directing the Government to appoint four members on the Board and for taking appropriate steps for holding election of the President of the said Board. The said petition was filed in the month of December, 1999. Initially, a notice was issued and, thereafter, as despite the notice and repeated opportunities having been granted to the Government no reply was filed, the court (Coram: M.R.Calla,J) passed an order on 22.3.2000 which reads as under:-