RAMDITI KHARBANDA Vs. COLLECTOR ALLAHABAD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner by this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution seeks the issue of a writ of certiorari quashing the order of opposite party No. 4, the liquidator appointed under the co-operative Societies Act in connection with the liquidation of the Housing and House mortgage Society Limited, Allahabad, passed on the 1st August 1952 ordering realisation of a sum of Rs. 9,379/10/- from the petitioner as arrears of land revenue. Further, a writ of mandamus is sought for a direction to the opposite parties to furnish to the petitioner all the particulars of the claims of the Society in liquidation against the petitioner or her husband and to take proceedings in a civil Court according to law in respect of these claims.

(2.) IT appears that Shri M. L. Kharbanda, the husband of the petitioner, was a member of a limited co-operative society known as the Housing and House Mortgage Society Limited, Allahabad. After having become a member of the Society he obtained a loan of Rs. 2,500/- repayable with interest at the rate of Rs. 71/2 per cent. in monthly instalments of Rs. 25/- each, from the Society on the basis of an agreement. It further appears that subsequently further loans were taken. It is not necessary to specify all the loans that were taken for the purpose of deciding this writ petition; nor have the details of those loans been given to the Court clearly by either party. Some time in 1949 the Society went into liquidation. By that time, part of the loan that had been taken had been repaid. According to the petitioner the amount that had been repaid was Rs. 1,400/ -. Subsequently also some payments were made by the petitioner herself on the death of her husband; two such payments being sums of Rs. 500/- each in or about August 1950 and January 1951. Thereafter a letter was received by the petitioner from the liquidator calling upon her to pay a sum of Rs. 8,740713/- consisting of Rs. 7,769-4-0 due as principal of the loans taken, Rs. 476-9-0 as interest on it and Rs. 495/- as liquidation costs. The petitioner protested against this demand and there was a certain amount of correspondence. Thereafter the liquidator moved the collector through the Registrar to realise this amount as arrears of land revenue. Consequently this petition was presented in order to quash those proceedings.

(3.) A number of affidavits have been filed in connection with this petition, but it is not necessary to relate all the facts contained in those affidavits. I shall, therefore, only mention those facts which are essential for the purpose of deciding this case. There is no dispute that Shri M. L. Kharbanda was a member of this Society, nor is there any dispute that the Society has gone into liquidation and that opposite party No. 4 has been appointed as liquidator in accordance with the provisions of the Co-operative Societies Act. In Section 42, Co-operative Societies Act, the powers of the liquidator have been denned. He is entitled to determine the contributions to be made by the members, and past members of the Society to the assets of the Society, and further to give such directions in regard to the collection and distribution of the assets of the Society as may appear to hire to be necessary for winding up the affairs or the Society. He is also empowered to determine by what persons and in what proportion the costs of liquidation are to be borne. In pursuance of these powers the liquidator proceeded to make a determination and passed a contribution order on 1-8-1952, a copy of which is Annexure E to the affidavit filed on behalf of the petitioner in support of this petition. This Annexure shows that the liquidator purported to pass a contribution order and in that contribution order he held that the petitioner was liable to pay to the liquidator as contributions a sum of Rs. 8,884-10-0 and as costs of liquidation a sum of Rs. 495/-, The order is headed as: