GOPAL NARAYAN KULKARNI Vs. SANMUKHAPPA NINGAPPA ANGADI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) In this second appeal the questions for our consideration are whether a notice of the meeting was "circulated" to the members within the meaning of Section 35 (2)(b) of the Bombay Local Boards Act, 1923, and whether the meeting was validly convened. Secondly, if so, whether the retiring President had power to dissolve the meeting, and, thirdly, whether the fact that seven members left after he had pronounced the meeting dissolved affected the subsequent proceedings in which a new Chairman was elected, and then a President for the ensuing three years elected,

(2.) Now, we are bound in second appeal by the facts as found by the lower appellate Court, and those facts are that a notice convening the meeting was sent by post to all the members of the board: and that it was received by all except the one member in question, via., Mr. Majli, but it was delivered at the latter's house, though in fact he did not receive it. On this I would only say that the learned Judge has not expressly directed his attention to Section 114 of the Indian Evidence Act, illus. (f), whereunder a presumption would arise that the common course of business was followed in this particular case, and that as the letter was delivered at Mr. Majli's house, he would, in the ordinary course, have received it. But it is unnecessary to pursue that point, We will accept the learned Judge's view that, although the letter was delivered at his house, he in fact never received it.

(3.) I, accordingly, turn to the construction of the material sections of the Act, to which I will shortly refer. Section 27 provides that a meeting for the election of a now president shall be called by the president of the retiring board. The president of the retiring board shall preside at such meeting and the new board shall then elect its own chairman for that meeting and then the meeting shall proceed to elect the new president. Next, Section 85(2)(b) provides that twenty-one clear days notice of a quarterly meeting and fourteen clear days notice of a special meeting, specifying certain matters shall be "circulated" to the members and posted up at the local board office. Such notice shall include in the case of a special meeting any motion or proposition mentioned in any written request made for such meeting. Then (c) provides for a quorum and for an adjournment by the president in the absence of a quorum :(f) That all questions are to be decided by a majority of votes of the members present: (h) That any quarterly meeting may, with the consent of a majority of the members present, be adjourned from time to time : and (4) That "no act of a board, or of any person acting as a member or as a president, vice-president, or chairman, shall be deemed to be invalid by reason only of some defect in the appointment of such board, president, vice-president, chairman, or member, or on the ground that they, or any of them, were disqualified for the office of member, or that formal notice of the intention to hold a meeting of the board was not duly given, or for any other such mere informality." Section 63 provides that "the service of every notice, and the presentation of every bill under this Act, on any person or to any person to whom it is by name addressed shall, in all cases not otherwise specially provided for in this Act, be effected" in the manner therein mentioned.