GOPI NATH Vs. RAM NATH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an appeal by two preference share-holders in the Muttra District Co- operative Bank. The appellants were the plaintiffs in the trial Court. They brought a suit against four defendants for a declaration that the latter had not been legally elected Directors of the Bank and for an injunction to restrain them from acting as such. The Directors were elected for a period of three years. Owing to the delay which has taken place in the hearing of the appeal, that period has now expired and it may be for this reason that the three surviving defendants are not now represented before us. The fourth defendant died while the suit was pending.

(2.) The facts of the case are briefly these: A meeting was held on 21 September, 1921 for the appointment of four Directors under the bye-laws of the Society. The society was one constituted under the Co-operative Societies Act of 1912. The meeting was a disorderly one and about 4 p.m. it was adjourned by the Chairman. It was adjourned on the ground that the meeting could not be concluded by daylight, but the Subordinate Judge also finds that the meeting was so disorderly that from the very beginning of the meeting, the Chairman, who was the Collector of the district, was unable to make himself heard except by means of a megaphone. After the Chairman had left, the party of B. Ganga Prasad, which was opposed to the candidates favoured by the Chairman, continued the meeting on their own account and proceeded to elect certain persons as Directors.

(3.) The Chairman had originally adjourned the meeting until the next day, September 22nd, 1921. On that day, finding that a number of supporters of the defendants had gone away under the impression that the proceedings were finished, he further adjourned the meeting till October the 4th. On 4 October a resolution was proposed by B. Ganga Prasad's party urging that an election had already taken place and no election remained to be carried out. This resolution was disallowed by the Chairman. B. Ganga Prasad's party then left the meeting in a body, and the persons remaining proceeded to elect the four defendants as Directors.