HARENDRASINGHCHOWDHARY Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned counsel for the State and in the facts and circumstances of the case, this application is being disposed of at the admission stage itself with consent of the parties.

(2.) By this writ petition, the petitioner has prayed for quashing of the Notification as contained in Memo No 4988/i4/Vidhi (3)-14/93, dated 8th July, 1993, issued by respondent No. 2, whereby and whereunder it has been directed that the term of the Managing Committee of the Dhanbad Central Co-operative Bank, Ltd. Dhanbad, (hereinafter to be referred to as the Committee for short) is to expire on 31-3-1993 and the grace period is also to expire on 31-12-1993 and, therefore, the election for the said Bank should be held within that period. A copy of the said Notification dated 8th July, 1993, is contained in Annexure 5 to this writ petition. The petitioner has also prayed for a writ of mandamus restraining the respondents from taking any step either for holding any election or for superseding the Committee of the Bank.

(3.) Briefly stated, the facts giving rise to this writ petition are as follows : In order to constitute a new Managing Committee for the said Bank, of which the petitioner is a Director, the election for electing the Directors/ Office bearers of the Committee was fixed to be held on 13-1-1991. Consequently thereof the election was held on 13-1-1991 and the petitioner was elected to the said Committee. Since election of 2/3rd members of the Committee (except one Vice Chairman and 13 Directors) was completed, the Managing Director of the said Bank communicated the result of the election to the Registrar of the Cooperative Societies and other concerned authorities of the State Government with a view to enable the State Government to complete the constitution of the Committee by nominating the Chairman and other members. The petitioner on several occasions met the Registrar and the Additional Registrar of the Cooperative Societies and the other concerned authorities of the State Government to nominate the Chairman and other members from its quota in order to complete the constitution of the said Committee. The State Government failed to nominate the Chairman and other members from its quota and thus the members of the Committee -of the Bank remained stranded for more than 16 months and was not in a position to function in view of sub-clause (2) Rule 22 of the Bihar Cooperative Societies Rules, 1959 (hereinafter to be referred to as the said Rules). On failure of the State Government to discharge its statutory powers for electing one Chairman and other members from its quota, the petitioner moved this Court in C W J C. No. 1719 of 1992 (R) for directing the State Government to exercise its powers conferred under the first proviso to sub-section (4) of Section 14 of the Bihar Cooperative Societies Act, 1935 (hereinafter to be referred to as 'the Act" for short) The aforesaid writ petition was disposed of on 24-7-1992 directing the respondents concerned to exercise its statutory duty as envisaged under the first proviso to sub-section (4) of Section 14 of the Act within a period of two months from the date of communication of a copy of that order. Since the order passed by this Court was not complied with the petitioner filed a contempt petition in this Court, being M.J C. No. 4 of 1993, and during the pendency of that application, the State Government exercised its statutory powers aforesaid and nominated the Chairman and three other Directors on 24-3-1993.