S PRATAP REDDY Vs. GOVERNMENT OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This application by the petitioner, under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, is to quash the order of the Deputy Registrar (Marketing and Consumers) Hyderabad in his Re. No. 1714/69-C, dated 8th January, 1970 disqualifying him from holding the office of a member of the managing committee of the Co-operative Marketing Society, Tandur with effect from 1st May, 1969.

(2.) The petitioner is a member of the Multipurpose Co-operative Society, Parwathapur on behalf of which he was sent as a delegate to the Tandur Co-operative Marketing Society Ltd., Tandur of which he was elected as Vice-President in the year 1968. By virtue of his being the Vice-President of the Tandur Co-operative Marketing Society, he was a member of its committee. He was also a primary member of the Tandur Go-operative Land Mortgage Bank Ltd., Tandur in the years 1968-69 and still continues to be so. A loan amounting to Rs. 394-93 due and payable on 1st April, 1969 by the petitioner to the Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank, Tandur was paid by him on 15th May, 1969. Clause (F) of by-law 33 of the by-laws of the Tandur Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank Ltd., disqualifies a person from being eligible for appointment as member of the Board of Directors of the Bank if he is in default to the Bank or to any other society in respect of any loan or loans taken by him for a period exceeding thirty days. The Deputy Registrar (Marketing and Consumers) Hyderabad, issued a notice to the petitioner on 10th October, 1969 to show cause as to why he should not be disqualified from his directorship of the Committee of the Co-operative Marketing Society, Tandur on the ground that he committed a default in repayment of Rs. 394-93 to the Tandur Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank for a period exceeding thirty days. In his reply dated 23rd October, 1969, it was stated by the petitioner that no default in repayment of any loan or amount either to the Cooperative Marketing Society of Tandur or Parwathapur had been committed by him, that the loan taken by him from the Tandur Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank was in his individual capacity but not as a delegate of the Co-operative Marketing Society, Parwathapur or Tandur, that a director is not liable to be disqualified if the period of default does not exceed three months and that in any event the impugned notice was illegal and without jurisdiction as the amount was in fact paid long prior to the issuance of the show cause notice and hence he is not liable to be disqualified. It was also stated that he could not repay the amount in question in time due to Telangana Bundh agitation and did not commit any deliberate default. The 2nd respondent rejecting the pleas raised by the petitioner, ultimately disqualified the petitioner by passing the impugned order. Hence this writ petition.

(3.) Reiterating the points already raised by his client in his reply notice to the Deputy Registrar, Sri Haridatta Reddy argued that the impugned order is illegal and without jurisdiction and in any event the disqualification must be deemed to have ceased by the date of the repayment of the loan. This claim of the petitioner is resisted by the Government pleader contending inter alia that the order of the Deputy Registrar is perfectly valid and justified and the petitioner is disqualified to continue as or to become a member of the committee of any society till the end of the life.