BACHAN SINGH Vs. AGRICULTURAL CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETY GUJJARWAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS second execution appeal arises out of the following facts. Bachan Singh appellant was the employee of the Agricultural Co-operative Society, Gujjarwal, tehsil and district Ludhiana-respondent before me. Some dispute regarding the payment of a sum of money arose between the parties which was referred by the Assistant Registrar to an Arbitrator for decision in accordance with law. The Arbitrator found that the appellant was liable to pay a sum of Rs. 3255. 80 to the society. It is not disputed that under the provisions of the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act the award given by an Arbitrator can be executed as a decree of a Civil Court. When the Society took out execution proceedings, the appellant filed objections under Section 47 of the Code of Civil Procedure alleging therein that the award was secured by the decree-holder by fraud and collusion with the Arbitrator and that the latter had no jurisdiction to give the impugned award. It was further alleged that the Assistant Registrar, exercising the powers of the Registrar, should have served a prior notice on the appellant before he decided whether he himself should adjudicate, upon the dispute or should refer it to another Arbitrator, as he did in this case. The learned Trial Court dismissed the objections and the appeal filed by the appellant before the Second Additional District Judge, Ludhiana, also failed.

(2.) MR. Y. P. Gandhi, learned Counsel for the appellant, raised an objection that the Assistant Registrar, who had actually referred this dispute for arbitration, had not been invested with the powers of the Registrar under the said Act. The learned Counsel for the respondent drew my attention to a Punjab Government notification dated September 12, 1963, under which the Assistant Registrars had been invested with powers of the Registrar under Section 56 of the said Act. On seeing the notification, the learned Counsel did not press this objection any further.

(3.) THE more serious objection of the learned Counsel is that it was incumbent upon the Assistant Registrar to give a prior hearing to the appellant before deciding whether he himself should adjudicate upon the dispute or he should refer it to another Arbitrator for decision. The relevant portion of Section 56 of, the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act runs as follows:--