SATYA NARAIN TRIPATHI Vs. STATE OF U P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE Kshettriya Shri Gandhi Ashram, Deoria is a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. Under the bye law No. 10 of the bye laws of the society the members of the society are to elect members of the prabandh samiti. Under bye law No. 14 ordinary members of the committee of management are to be elected for 3 years. Under bye law No. 21 the Secretary is to be elected by the committee of management. The dispute in the present writ petition relates to the election to the post of Secretary. It appears that a list of members of the committee of management for the year 2001-2002 was filed under section 4 (1) of the Societies Registration Act and in that list the names of Satya Narain Tripathi petitioner No. 1 in writ Petition no. 33392 of 2006 and the respondent No. 4 Mahendra Nath Dubey were also included, In the year 2003 two rival claims to the post of Secretary were set up one by the petitioner No. 1 Satya Narain Tripathi and the other by the respondent no. 4 Mahendra Nath Dubey. The Assistant Registrar, Firms, Societies and Chits, Gorakhpur passed an order dated 11. 7. 2003 and approved the proceedings dated 24. 4. 2003 submitted by Mahendra Nath Dubey and recognised him as the Secretary and directed him to file a list of members of the management committee. The order of the Assistant Registrar dated 11. 7. 2003 was challenged in Writ Petition No. 32799 of 2003. The writ petition was disposed of by an order dated 4. 5. 2006 with a direction to the Assistant Registrar to hold the elections for the post of Secretary of the society under his supervision and to follow the procedure in the bye-laws. It was directed that till the elections of the Secretary take place the post of Secretary shall be vested in the District Magistrate, Deoria.

(2.) IN pursuance of the order of this Court the Assistant Registrar undertook the exercise of holding the elections. He invited the petitioner No. 1 Satya Narain tripathi as well as the respondent No. 4 Mahendra Nath Dubey to produce the original records and members list. An election programme was published in the newspaper 'rashtriya Sahara' dated 16. 6. 2006 in which the date of publication of the provisional voter list was fixed as 20. 6. 2006, objections to which were also to be filed later, on the same day. 22. 6. 2006 was fixed as the date for disposal of the objections and final voter list was to be published on 23. 6. 2006. The Assistant Registrar found that the Secretary of the society is to be elected by the committee of management of the society, which thus constitutes the electoral body. He also found that the list of members of the committee of management 2001-2002 filed under section 4 (1) was the authentic list in as much as that list was not challenged while the subsequent elections in the year 2003 were disputed. He, therefore, decided that the election would be held on the basis of the list of members pertaining to the year 2001-2002. It appears that several sets of objections against the voter list were filed before the Assistant Registrar. One of these objections was filed by the petitioner No. 1 Satya Narain Tripathi. Another objection was filed by the respondent No. 4 Mahendra Nath Dubey. Another objection was filed by Gauri shanker Mishra petitioner in Writ Petition No. 39368 of 2006. There were 11 members of the committee of management in the list of 2001-2002. While deciding the objections of petitioner No. 1 Satya Narain Tripathi and other persons the Assistant Registrar found that two of the members in the list have died. He, therefore, allowed the objections in this respect and published the final electoral list of nine members. The objections of the petitioner No. 1 Satya narain Tripathi on other points were rejected by the Assistant Registrar. The objections of this petitioner were (i) Mahendra Nath Dubey was not qualified to be a member in view of the fact that under the bye-law No. 5 only a person who had put in 15 years of service in the Sanstha alone could be a member, a qualification, which according to the petitioner, Mahendra Nath Dubey did not possess; (ii) out of the nine members Mahendra Upadhyay and Vishambher nath Pandey had already retired; (iii) Durga Prasad Rai had resigned from service on 1. 2. 2004 and his resignation was approved by the committee; (iv) the services of Som Nath Dubey were terminated on 26. 9. 2005 and he had left the sanstha and these persons not being in the service of the Sanstha had ceased to be qualified to be members of the Sanstha and consequently their names were liable to be excluded from the electoral roll. The Assistant Registrar found that there was a dispute regarding the membership of these persons and that there was also a dispute about membership of the petitioner No. 1 Satya Narain tripathi himself and in respect of three other persons who according to Satya narain Tripathi were also members. He, therefore, published the electoral roll of nine members excluding out of the list of 11 members pertaining to the year 2001-2002 only the two members who had died. The order of the Assistant registrar dated 22. 6. 2006 finalising the electoral list has been challenged by the petitioner No. 1 Satya Narain Tripathi in Writ Petition No. 33392 of 2006 and also by Gauri Shanker Mishra in Writ Petition No. 39638 of 2006. The name of Gauri Shanker Misra does not find place in the list of members 2001-2002 which has been found by the Assistant Registrar to be the valid list and therefore gauri Shanker Misra is not included in the electoral college. The stand of gauri Shanker Mishra is that the members list of the year 2001-2002 was not a valid list and that the subsequent list of members of the committee of management on the basis of which elections were held in the year 2003 in which list his name was also included was the valid list. The petitioner Gauri Shanker mishra claims that he was elected as a trustee member along with 15 others including the Secretary Mahendra Nath Dubey in the election of 2003 and his membership was acknowledged by the respondent No. 4 Mahendra Nath dubey and that the list of members in which the name of Gauri Shanker mishra is included was approved by the Assistant Registrar by order dated 11. 7. 2003 and the said order dated 11. 7. 2003 has also been relied upon by the assistant Registrar in his order dated 22. 6. 2006 finalising the voter's list impugned in this writ petition and as such there was no ground for excluding him from the membership. Several questions of fact are thus involved in this writ petition.

(3.) THE writ petition of Satya Narain Tripathi was presented on 26. 6. 2006. An interim order was passed by this Court in this writ petition on 28. 6. 2006 whereunder this Court permitted the elections to be held on 29. 6. 2006 as scheduled but directed that the results of the elections shall not be given effect to till 7. 6. 2006. This order was extended from time to time. It appears that the respondent Mahendra Nath Dubey alone had filed his nomination paper for the post of Secretary and he was unopposed.