E V SRINIVASACHARIAR Vs. SRIRANGAM JANOPAKARA BANK LIMITED

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a petition to revise the order of the District Munsif of Tiruchirapalli, regarding certain findings on two preliminary issues, which were raised for his decision The first defendant is the petitioner in this revision petition. He was the president of the Srirangam Janopakara Bank Ltd., which is a banking company incorporated under the Indian Companies Act. THIS company was managed by a board of 13 directors, with the first defendant as the president. There appear to have been some differences and disputes in the board of management, which at this stage it is unnecessary to detail, and the directors called for a meeting of the board on November 14, 1953, when they purported to remove the first defendant from the office of presidentship and appointed the second plaintiff in his stead. As the petitioner refused to recognise the validity of his removal and to hand over charge to the person appointed as president, the suit out of which this revision arises was filed by the company by its newly elected president as the first plaintiff, the newly elected president as the second plaintiff, and plaintiffs 3 to 10 being 8 other directors. To this suit were impleaded as defendants, the petitioner as the first defendant, and as defendants 2 to 5 the other four directors stated to be siding with the first defendant and refusing their co-operation to the plaintiffs. The paid secretary of the bank was impleaded as the sixth defendant The plaint, after setting out the circumstances which necessitated the proceedings for the removal of the first defendant from his office as president, and, after affirming the validity of the proceedings held therefore, went on to state in paragraph 17

(2.) WHETHER the suit as laid is not maintainable " and an additional issue

(3.) THE suit in substance is one for the recovery of the office of the president based upon the resolution of the board of directors appointing the second plaintiff as the president. Under article 41 of the articles of association the president has a general control over all the affairs of the Nidhi. THE affairs of the Nidhi include the management of the properties of the Nidhi. THE office of president, it is therefore stated, is intimately connected with the right to possession of the properties of the bank, and as the office and the right to manage the property are intimately connected, it is stated that a suit for the recovery of such an office is virtually a suit for the possession of the properties, which the holder of such an office has the right to manage. Reliance is also placed on certain other powers of the president under the articles. On the basis of this reasoning, it is urged that the suit ought to be valued under Section 7(iv)(c) of the Court-fees Act, on the basis of the market value of the properties of the institution of which the second plaintiff claims to be the president. For this position reliance is placed on the judgment of this court in Karupanna Nadar v. Karuppa Nadar. THE dispute there related to an educational institution, known a Nadar Kshatria Vidyasala situated in the village of Ilupaiyur in Pallimandam Taluk of Ramanathapuram District.