SOUTH INDIAN ARTISTES ASSOCIATION Vs. REGISTRAR OF SOCIETIES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) I always like walking in the rain, so no one can see me crying -Charlie Chaplin.

(2.) It is true that behind the brightest smile of some of the Artistes, there may be darkest secrets and sorrow that others cannot understand. To annihilate the difficulties of its member Artistes, both drama and film, to uphill their standard of living, to protect the rights of its members and to find solution for their problems, South Indian Artistes' Association was formed, which were its few objectives, as has been found in its bye-laws. A trust named The Nadigar Sangam Charitable Trust (NSCT) was also established. The election for the office bearers of the said Association is in turmoil, which is the reason, they are before us in these batch of appeals.

(3.) The case of the appellants is that South Indian Artistes' Association (in short, "the Association") is a registered association under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975 and its original registration number was 50/52. Its office-bearers were elected on 18/10/2015 for a period of three years as per bye-laws. The Annual General Body Meeting of the Association was held on 19/8/2018, which extended the term of office-bearers for another six months, i.e. till 18/4/2019, which would have otherwise expired on 18/10/2018. The reason being that the construction of convention hall and office premises for the benefit of the members of the Association was at the crucial phase. Owing to various reasons, they could not conduct the Executive Committee meeting before 18/4/2019 and with a delay of 10 days, the Executive Committee meeting was conducted on 28/4/2019, and a retired Hon'ble Judge of this Court was requested to be the Election Officer. The Hon'ble Election Officer issued the election notification on 29/5/2019 listing the schedule and to conduct the election on 23/6/2019. However, according to the Association, to thwart the free and fair election, C.S.No.353 of 2019 was filed along with applications seeking interim prayers. The prayers made in the suit are :