NETRANANDA BARIK Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS application under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India seeks to challenge the jurisdiction of the Assistant Registrar under the Orissa Cooperative societies Act, 1951 (Act 11 of 1952) (hereinafter referred to as the Act) to make the impugned award on 27-3-62 in a dispute raised by Opposite Party No. 2. That award of the Assistant Registrar was challenged in an appeal before the Deputy registrar under Section 128 (1) of the Act and was also subjected to two revisions in succession -- one under Section 131 before the Registrar and the other under section 132 (1) before the State Government. The decision of the Assistant registrar having been upheld by all the forums the petitioner has come up before this Court.

(2.) ONE of the grounds raised in the petition is that the Assistant Registrar had no jurisdiction to entertain the dispute directly and his taking cognizance of the dispute without a reference of the dispute being made by the Registrar has vitiated the exercise of a jurisdiction by the Assistant Registrar. When this writ application came up for hearing before a Division Bench consisting of their lordships the Chief Justice and Ray, J. , a decision of this Court passed in O. J. C. No. 104 of 1967 (Orissa) was cited wherein my Lord the Chief Justice and myself took the view that it was not open to the Assistant Registrar to entertain a dispute raised under Section 71 (1) of the Act unless such a dispute was referred to him by the Registrar. The correctness of this decision was challenged before the division Bench which was hearing this writ application and, therefore, in pursuance of the order dated 10-12-1969 'this larger Bench has been constituted to examine the correctness of the decision in O. J. C. No. 104 of 1967 (Orissa) (hereinafter referred to as the "earlier case" ).

(3.) THE reasoning which was given in the earlier case to uphold the conclusion that no other authority except the Registrar was entitled to entertain a dispute under the Act was as follows :--