BAPULAL Vs. LAXMI BHARAT TRADING CO

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a civil regular first appeal by the plaintiff in a suit for money which has been dismissed by the Senior Civil Judge, Udaipur, by his judgment dated the 18th May, 1957.

(2.) THE appellant is Bapulal Soni Saraogi who filed the suit out of which this appeal arises as President of an association which is called 'naj Vitran Committee' with its office at Udaipur, on behalf of himself and the other members of that committee. THE respondents before us are three in number, the first being a partnership firm which carried on business in the name of Laxmi Bharat Trading Co. and the second and third being Hiralal and Pannalal, who are alleged to be the partners of the said firm. Respondent No. 2 Heeralal having died during the pendency of this appeal, his legal representatives, namely, Ambalal and others have been substituted in his place by an order of this Court dated the 15th October, 1958. THE suit was originally brought against nine other persons, one of whom was abandoned as untraceable, and the plaintiff compromised it with the remaining 8 for a sum of Rs. 8,000/- with the result that we are not concerned with them in this appeal. A considerable part of facts leading up to this litigation stands either admitted by the parties or has been satisfactorily proved so that the same has not been challenged before us in this appeal. We propose at the outset to refer these facts. THE said Naj Vitran Committee, of which Bapulal and his companions were members, was established in the city of Udaipur with the object of helping the Government to properly distribute grain among the public some time towards the middle of 1947 and appears to have remained in existence until 1950 or 1951, though we do not know the exact dates in these respects. This committee consisted of 115 members and was registered under the Mewar Societies Registration Act (No. VII of 1941 ). Defendant Khem Raj, who has appeared as P. W. 4 at the trial was the Secretary of both the Naj Vitran Committee and the defendant Laxmi Bharat Trading Company. It is further admitted that there were money dealings between these two bodies and that the said Khem Raj was the person who loaned at various times sums of moneys aggregating to a figure of Rs. 14,601/- as Secretary of the Naj Vitran Committee to the defendant Laxmi Bharat Trading Company. It is also not disputed that interest was payable on the loan at 9 per cent per annum. As the defendant failed to repay the aforesaid loan, the present suit was brought by Bapulal in a representative capacity on behalf of himself and the other members of the said Naj Vitran Committee against the defendants for a sum of Rs. 14,601/- and interest, deducting certain repayments which are not disputed, the total thus working out to a sum of Rs. 16,485/8/ -. This suit was resisted by defendant respondents Heera Lal and Pannalal and certain others, and with these latter the plaintiff having already compromised the suit we are not concerned at this stage. THE principal pleas in so far as they are material for the purposes of this appeal were that the Naj Vitran Committee was an illegal body having not been registered under sec. 4 of the Mewar Companies Act, which is an exact counter part of sec. 11 of the Indian Companies Act, 1913, and, therefore, the present suit is not maintainable at its instance, and further that Hiralal in any case was not a partner of the Laxmi Bharat Trading Company. THE trial Court accepted both these pleas and dismissed the plaintiff's suit. Aggrieved by this decision the plaintiff has come up in appeal to this Court.