SURJIT KAUR Vs. IMPROVEMENT TRUST, LUDHIANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution prays for issuance of directions to the respondents to hand over the actual physical possession of Plot No. 6 measuring 150 sq. yds in Model Town Extension Part II, Block 'C' Scheme of Ludhiana Improvement Trust, Ludhiana. It is pertinent to mention that the petitioner Surjit Kaur wife of Kirpal Singh has approached this Court through her special power of attorney Ms. Gurleen Arora d/o Rajinder Singh now resident of H. No. 2855, Sector 38-C, Chandigarh on the basis of special power of attorney executed by Surjit Kaur in favour of Ms. Gurleen Arora.

(2.) THE case of the petitioner is that Surjit Kaur became a member of the Ludhiana Central Bank Employees Co-operative House Building Society Limited, Ludhiana respondent No. 2 (for brevity 'the Society') and had paid all dues concerning her membership. Her name is entered at serial No. 53 of the register of members. She has applied for allotment of plot in the Model Town Extension Part II, Block 'C' Scheme and it is claimed that she was allotted plot No. 6, measuring 150 sq. yards in the said locality. She has paid all the dues including development charges and exemption fee at the rate of Rs. 5/- per square yard. A letter to that effect is stated to have been written by the respondent society to the Chairman of the Improvement Trust, Ludhiana intimating about the allotment of plot No. 6 in favour of the petitioner and all the dues towards the said plot having been paid by her. Accordingly, a request was made for transfer of the plot in her name and handing over the possession of the plot (Annexure P-1). The petitioner has levelled allegations against one Vijay B. Verma who had taken over as President of the society somewhere in the year 1993 who revised the lay out plan and made changes in the allotment of plots in respect of the petitioner. As a consequence plot No. 727 measuring 156 sq. yds. was shown to have been allotted to her. Against the afore-mentioned change made by the society in the year 1993, the petitioner made a representation to the Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Punjab on 29.12.1993 (Annexure P-2). The petitioner is alleged to have paid all the legitimate dues towards the price, development charges and other charges regarding plot No. 6 which are more than Rs. 24,000/-. Rs. 20,000/- is stated to have been paid by bank draft on 26.6.1993 which was encashed on 1.7.1993 by the society. The balance amount of Rs. 4,000/- is alleged to be accepted in cash by the President of the society. It is alleged that non-delivery of the actual possession of Plot No. 6 measuring 150 sq. yards in Model Town Extension Scheme Part III is absolutely arbitrary.

(3.) IN the reply filed by respondent No. 2 numerous objections have been raised. Firstly, it has been asserted that the writ petition is not maintainable because the society (respondent No. 2) is not an authority or instrumentality of the State. It is claimed that the Society is purely a private person without any financial or administrative control of the State. It has further been pointed out that a general body of respondent No. 2 had passed a resolution on 28.8.1993 (Annexure R/2/1) expelling the petitioner from the primary membership after her membership has been proved to be fictitious and by proxy of one Rajinder Singh. (The instant petition is pursued through his daughter). A perusal of the afore-mentioned resolution shows that one Rajinder Singh who was working as Executive Officer of the Improvement Trust, Ludhiana had forced the society in the year 1990 to enroll two of his benami members namely Surjit Kaur (the petitioner) and Sneh Prabha. After allotment of plots by the Improvement Trust, Ludhiana, to the Society the afore-mentioned Rajinder Singh deliberately played a fraud with the society as the plots allotted by the Trust were non-existing and most of them were under the illegal occupation of Nihangs and Juggi dwellers. The afore- mentioned Rajinder Singh is alleged to have produced some ladies impersonating as Surjit Kaur and Sneh Prabha. Then he started claiming vacant possession. The affidavit which was been filed before the society is also alleged to be false. It has further been pointed out that a civil suit No. 2231 dated 10.10.1991 for a declaration was also filed by the petitioner claiming that she was owner of plot in question and relief of permanent injunction to restrain the respondent from selling/re-allotting the plot to any other person was claimed. The afore-mentioned suit was instituted on 10.10.1991 by the petitioner before the Court of learned Civil Judge Ist Class, Ludhiana which was dismissed for non-prosecution on 8.6.1991. A copy of the order dated 8.6.1994 has been placed on the record as Annexure R/2/2. The petitioner thereafter filed the instant writ petition. The afore-mentioned facts have also not been disclosed in the writ petition. It has also been asserted in para 5 of the written statement that Shri Vijay B. Verma was duly elected President of the Society and the allegations of mala fide against him are baseless. The complaint Annexure P-2 made by Rajinder Singh and Gurleen Kaur discloses that they have purchased the plot in question from Surjit Kaur on the basis of power of attorney. The complaint was also dismissed by the Assistant Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Ludhiana after making detailed investigation being frivolous. The assertion with regard to payment of Rs. 24,000/- more in order to get possession of the plot in question have also been categorically denied. The President of the society never received Rs. 4,000/- in cash. It is, however, admitted that Rs. 20,000/- was collected towards development charges which were lying deposited with respondent No. 1. In the concluding para it has been urged that the petitioner is a fictitious person and he never approached the answering respondent for delivery of the plot in question. According to the averments made in para 5 of the writ petition read with Annexure R/2/1 she is alleged to have already sold the plot to Rajinder Singh and Gurleen Kaur and she has no locus standi to file the petition.