U. SRINIVAS MALLIAH Vs. KRISHNA KUMAR CHATTERJEE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is an application for an interlocutory injunction restraining the defendants, their agents and servants from applying for registration to the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies of Calcutta or elsewhere and getting registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860 an association under the name of the Indian National Congress or name similar to the same and also for injunction restraining the defendants from inviting or receiving any subscriptions or donations or acquiring any property in the name of the association so proposed to be registered under the Societies Registration Act 1860.

(2.) THE case of the petitioners is that the Indian National Congress which is the greatest political organisation in India, was started in the year 1885. It has various political, social, cultural, economic and benevolent activities. The headquarters of the organisation are at New Delhi and it has branches and committees in all the States in India and in the various districts in the States. The central organisation, the Pradesh Congress Committees and the District Congress Committees have considerable properties, movable and immovable in the country. The organisation has its own Constitution, a copy of which is annexed to the petition. It has over a crore of members all over the country, who have paid subscriptions for becoming its members in terms of its Constitution. Its activities consist inter alia in collecting subscriptions and donations and in acquiring property by purchase, transfer, gifts and settlement. It is alleged in the petition that on or about 19 -3 -1952 the petitioner Biswanath Mukherjee came to learn that the defendants had applied to the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies at Calcutta, to register an association under the name and style of toe Indian National Congress as a Society under the Societies Registration Act 1860. It is alleged that this application for registration is not a bona fide one but is made with the mala fide object of deceiving the public and leading them by mistake to pay subscriptions and donations in the belief that they are doing so to the organisation of Indian National Congress of which the petitioners are the members and also to induce the public to join the association proposed to be registered as members thereof in the belief that they are joining the petitioners' organisation, the Indian National Congress. It is further stated in the petition that the petitioners have proprietary rights to and interest in the properties of the Indian National Congress and/or the West Bengal Pradesh Congress Committee. The petitioners apprehend that if the association proposed to be registered by the defendants is allowed to be so registered the rights and interests of the members of the Indian National Congress and the vast properties thereof would be seriously prejudiced and endangered, and such registration will amount to a fraud upon the public. It is alleged that the objects of the defendants is to grab the properties of the Indian National Congress and to stifle its functions and activities. It is further stated that the objects and purposes of the proposed association are colourable imitations of the objects and purposes of the Indian National Congress.

(3.) DEFENDANT 1 has affirmed the affiavit in opposition and there is a denial of practically all the allegations in the petition. It is further stated in the affidavit that there has been internecine dissensions and political differences in the Congress organisation itself and as a result thereof certain eminent leaders whose names are set out in the affidavit have left the organisation which has forfeited the confidence of the public. It is denied that it has as large a number of members as is alleged or that it has vast properties as suggested. It is submitted that there is no likelihood of the public being deceived or the petitioners' organisation suffering any injury as alleged. The deponent also charges the petitioners as being in collusion with the Registrar of Joint Stock Companies.