HARDYAL SINGH Vs. REGISTRAR COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES, PUNJAB CHANDIGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Gurdaspur Co-operative Marketing-cum-Processing Society Limited was constituted under the provisons of the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act, 1961 (for short, the Act). In view of the financial position of the society, an order of winding up was passed on 11.9.1980 and vide order dated 31.3.1992, the society was revived. As per the By-laws of the society, only those members could participate in the election, who had sold agricultural produce or done business of atleast Rs. 10,000/- through the society during the preceding year. Only six such members being available. They proposed and seconded each other's names and were elected as members of the Managing Committee and they were elected in the elections held in the year 1994. Term of the said committee came to an end on 31.3.1999 and since no election was held, an Administrator was appointed by the Registrar under Section 26(ID) of the Act. Certain residents approached the Registrar, Co- operative Societies, Punjab and expressed desire to get themselves enrolled as members and also raised a grievance that they were not being enrolled as members, which was noticed in letter dated 26.10.1999, Annexure R-1 to the written statement filed on behalf of respondents No. 5 and 6. It appears that the term of the Administrator expired on 31.3.2000 and in his place, a Supervisory Officer was appointed, who passed resolution dated 28.6.2000 seeking approval of the Registrar for enrolment of the new members. The said resolution is Annexure R-2 to the reply filed by respondents No. 5 and 6. The Joint Registrar vide his order dated 1.8.2000 permitted enrolment of the new members (Annexure R-3 to the above written statement). The petitioner filed petition before the Registrar under Section 27(3) of the Act challenging the enrolment of the new members. The Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Punjab vide order dated 28.3.2001 (Annexure P-9) referred the matter to the Joint Registrar, who vide order dated 29.6.2001 (Annexure P-10) held that the enrolment of members was in the interest of the society and the same was after approval of the concerned officer.

(2.) This writ petition has been filed by the members of the previous Managing Committee challenging order of enrolment of members and order rejecting objections of the petitioners, Annexures P-9 and P-10. This petition was filed on 4.8.2001 and notice was issued to the respondents, in response to which written statement has been filed by respondents No. 1 to 4 and also a separate written statement has been filed by respondents No. 5 and 6. It has been stated that on the basis of enrolment of new members, election has already been held on 29.8.2001. It has been submitted that the enrolment of new members was justified to overcome the situation, where only six members were eligible, who would have perpetually had the monopoly of being the office- bearers of the Managing Committee, which was against the co-operative spirit and since the said six members (petitioners herein) did not permit any new member to join, the nominee of the Registrar, who was looking after the affairs of the society, enrolled new members with the permission of the Registrar.

(3.) Counsel for the petitioners contended that the term of the Administrator had expired and thereafter a Supervisory Officer had been appointed, which was not permitted under the law. Reliance was placed on Shri Naginder Singh and others v. State of Punjab and others,1973 PunLJ 728; Brij Kishore Arora v. The Administrator, U.T. Chandigarh and others, 1994 1 RRR 618 and Balwant Singh and others v. The Union Territory Administration and others,1994 PunLJ 6.