SEWA SINGH Vs. THE STATE OF PUNJAB, ETC.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS judgment will dispose of Civil Writs Nos. 3749 of 1971, 4063 of 1971 and 4330 of 1971 as common questions of law arise for decision in all these petitions.

(2.) CIVIL Writ No. 3749 of 1971 was first placed before A.D. Koshal, J., who by order dated 29th November, 1971, referred the questions of law to a Division Bench as these questions were likely to arise in a large number of cases and involved the interpretation of numerous provisions of the Punjab Co -operative Societies Act, 1961 (hereinafter called the Act) and the Rules made thereunder. It is in this manner that these three writ petitions came to be placed before us. In the first of these writ petitions the Petitioner was a member of the Verka Kisan Cooperative Marketing -cum -Processing Society Ltd., Verka (hereinafter referred to as the Verka Society). The Verka Society was a member of the Punjab State Co -operative Society and Marketing Federation. Punjab (hereinafter called the Marketing Federation) and as a member of the Verka Society the Petitioner was to act as its representative on the Marketing Federation. The Petitioner was elected as a member of the Marketing Federation by the Verka Society. By circular letter No. E&T/ETA/G -1 -49/57816 -45, dated 17th November, 1970, the Joint Registrar (Headquarters), Co -operative Societies, Punjab, issued the following instructions:

(3.) ANOTHER notice was issued to the Petitioner by the Assistant Registrar calling upon him to show cause why he should not be declared to have ceased to be a Director of the Marketing Federation as he was a defaulter to the Amritsar Central Co -operative Bank Ltd., Amritsar, in respect of an amount of Rs. 1,1,721.21. The Petitioner contested this allegation, but the Assistant Registrar having found that the Petitioner had incurred disqualification under Rules 25(a) and 26(f) of the Punjab Co -operative Societies Rules held that the Petitioner had ceased to be a Director of the Marketing Federation with effect from 13th January, 1971. Thereafter the Petitioner filed the present petition challenging the orders Annexures B, C and D. The orders of the Assistant Registrar were challenged on a number of grounds, but we are only concerned with the ground mentioned in paragraph 14(vi) which is as follows: