SHAILESHBHAI ARVINDBHAI PATEL Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners who were contesting the election to the post of Directors in the respondent No. 4 - Bank Anand Mercantile Cooperative Bank Limited, have filed the present petition seeking following reliefs : -

(2.) Before dealing with the petition on merits, it may be stated that the petition was filed on 22.06.2017, and on 23.06.2017 the Court while issuing the notice to the respondents for final disposal of the petition, had observed that further proceedings of the election shall be subject to outcome of the petition. In the meantime, on 28.06.2017, 15 candidates as mentioned in Annexure R-1 to the affidavit-inreply by the respondent No.5 were declared as elected uncontested by the respondent No. 5 - the Chief Election Officer. The petitioner, therefore, had moved a Civil Application being No. 10550 of 2017 seeking prayer to implead the said 15 candidates as the party respondent Nos. 6 to 20 in the main petition. The Court having issued the notice to the said proposed respondent Nos. 6 to 20 in the said Civil Application, they were represented by the learned advocate Mr. H.M. Parikh, who was also representing the respondent No. 4 - Bank in the petition. The said application was contested by the said proposed respondents. The Coordinate Bench therefore passed the order on 08.01.2018 dismissing the said Civil Application mainly on the ground that the petitioners had not sought any relief against the said proposed respondents, and therefore, they could not be said to be the necessary parties. The said order remained unchallenged, and therefore, has become final.

(3.) At this juncture, it is also pertinent to note that the Section 74CC of the Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act, 1965 (hereinafter referred to as 'the said Act') was inserted by the Government of Gujarat, on 15.04.2013, which reads as under : -