OMPARKASH GOWARDHANDAS SINGHANIA Vs. G V KOIMATLUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners, are members of a Co-operative Housing society Opponent No. 2. Their mother was alloted a plot by the Society. This was subsequentl;y transferred to the petitioners. The by-laws of the Society were amended and a new by-law No. 11a was added. This by-law emplowers the Society to forfeit a plot if the member, to whom it is allotted, does not start construction of a house on the plot and does not complete the work of construction within the period mentioned in this by-law of such further period as may be approved by the managing committee on valid grounds. Under this by-law the petitioners' plot was forfeited by the Society, The petitioners then raised a dispute before the Registrar under Section 91 of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act. In their application they prayed that by-law 11a should be declared to be ultra vires of the provisions of the Act, otherwise bad in law and not binding on the petitioners and also that the forfeiture of their plot was bad in law, void and not binding on them. They also claimed other incidental reliefs. The first by-law made by a Society require the approval of the Registrar under S. 9 of the Act. Under Section 13 no amendment to the by-laws shall be valid until it is registered by the Registrar. The Assistant Registrar, who considered the petitioners' application, was of the approval to the by-law by the Registrar, that the Registrar's nominee had no jurisdiction to change the by-laws by declaring them as ultra vires and bad law, once they were registered by the registering authority and that the matter could not form the subject of a dispute under Section 91. In refard to the other reliefs sought by the petitioners he was of the opinion that they could file a separate plaint seeking those specific reliefs. He therefore rejected the petitioner's application to refer the matter to arbitration under Section 91 of the Act.

(2.) SUB-SECTION (1) of Section 13 of the Act provides that no amendment to the by-laws of a society shall be vallid until registered under the Act. Sub-section (2) of the same section lays down that when the Registrar registers a amendment of the by-laws of the Society, he shall issue to the Society a copy of the amendment certified by him, which shall be conclusive evidence that the same is duly registered. Sub-section (1) of Section 152 makes provisions for an appeal against the order of the Registrar under Section 13. sub-section (4) of this section as recently amended stated:-

(3.) MR. Soni has relied on Keshavlal Kalidas v. State of Bombay, (1957) 57 Bom LR 220. The facts of that case are distinguishable. The dispute in that case was as regards one about the power of the Registrar to register an amendment. This will be seen from the following observation at p. 222:-