DHANNA SINGH Vs. ASSISTANT REGISTRAR, COOPERATIVE SOCIETIES, MOGA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition under Article 226 of the Constitution has been filed by the shareholders and Directors of the Mandi Nihal Singhwala Tappa Cooperative Marketing Society Ltd., Nihal Singhwala, Tehsil Moga, district Faridkot (hereinafter referred to as the Society).

(2.) The society has as its members some co-operative societies which are functioning in the area of operation of the Society as also some individual members. The State Government has also subscribed to the share capital of the Society. The Committee of the Society consists of six Directors to be elected after a period of three years. The individual members elect three Directors and the remaining three are elected by the member societies. The last election of the Society was held on May 4, 1973, in which the petitioners and Sarvshri Jaswant Singh, Sant Singh and Gurdev Singh were elected as Directors. The term of that Committee was to expire in the first week of May, 1976.

(3.) It is alleged that the old Committee did not make arrangements for holding the elections 90 days before the date of the expiry of its term as laid down in section 26 of the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act, 1961 (hereinafter called the Act). This matter came up before the Committee of the Society on March 17, 1976, and it was decided to consider the arrangements for the election of the Directors to be held on April 29, 1976. Some objections raised by the petitioners were over-ruled. In that very meeting, the question regarding the enrolment of new members was considered. The petitioners raised objections that before the new members were accepted, their names and other particulars should be indicated. The objection was also turned down by a majority vote. In that very meeting the President and the Manager of the Committee were directed to carve out new zones for the election and to submit the proposals to the Registrar of Co-operative Societies for his approval. These proposals were duly made and the Assistant Registrar exercising the powers of the Registrar gave approval to the scheme of zones and the election programme.