DAHEDA GROUP SEVA SAHAKARI MANDLI LIMITED Vs. R D ROHIT AUTHO OFFICER AND CO OPERATIVE OFFICER MARKETING

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this group of Special Civil Applications, the petitioners have prayed for quashing and setting aside the order passed by the Authorized Officer and Cooperative Officer (Marketing), the respondent No.1 i.e. District Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Anand and to direct the said respondent to include names of the petitioners in the final voters' list. By way of interim order, the petitioners have also prayed for direction to respondent no.1 to permit the petitioners in the ensuing elections of the Kambhat Agricultural Produce Market Committee. According to the petitioners, they are entitled to be included in the voters list but for the reasons best known to the Election Officer acting at the behest of someone else, on extraneous grounds, deleted the names of the authorised representatives of the Agricultural Cooperative Societies or of the Societies which are disbursing agricultural loans to the members. Since in this group of Special Civil Applications common questions of law is involved, we intend to dispose them off by this common judgment.

(2.) By relying upon the provisions of law, especially Rule 28 of Gujarat Agricultural Market Produce Committee Rules, 1965 (hereinafter referred to as 'the rules'), it is averred that inclusion or non-inclusion of the names of certain voters in the voters' list cannot be challenged in an election petition under rule 28 of the rules. The petitioners, to substantiate their submissions, placed reliance on a decision of Division Bench in the case of Mehsana District Coop.Purchase & Sales Union Ltd. v. Dhadhusan Beej Utpadak Rupantar and Vechan Karnari Sahkari Mandali Ltd. & Ors. reported in 1998 (1) GLH 170.

(3.) During the course of the hearing before the Division Bench, the respondents raised a preliminary objection regarding maintainability of the petition by contending that the question of validity of preparation of voters' list which includes inclusion or deletion of the names of the voters in it, being integral part of the election process can always be raised in an election petition filed under rule 28 of the rules. To make good the submissions, learned Advocate for the respondents relied upon the following decisions of three Division Benches of this Court: (i) Patan Proper Fal and Shak Bhaji Kharid Vechan Sahakari Mandli Ltd. Patan v. Pali Shak Bhaji and Fal Ful Adi Ugarnaraoni Kharid Vechan Shahkari Mandli Ltd. Mehsana, (1986 GLH 430). (ii) Mehsana District Cooperative Sales and Purchase Union Ltd. & Anr. v. State of Gujarat & Ors. (1988 (2) GLR 1060) (iii) Kanubhai Chhaganbhai Patel v. Director of Agricultural Marketing & Rural Finance, Gandhinagar & Ors. (2004 (3) GLR 2718).