Chief Justice's Court
Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 521 of 2018 Appellant :- C/M Gramothan Parishad And Another Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Ors Counsel for Appellant :- Ranjeet Asthana Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble Dilip B. Bhosale,Chief Justice Hon'ble Yashwant Varma,J.
(i) Order on the delay condonation application:
This application seeks condonation of delay of 118 days in filing the special appeal.
Since the delay has satisfactorily been explained in the affidavit filed in support of the delay condonation application, the delay in filing the appeal is condoned.
The application is, accordingly, disposed of. There shall be no order as to costs.
(ii) Order on the memo of appeal:-
Heard Mr. Ranjeet Asthana for the appellant and Mr. Yogendra Kumar Srivastava, for the respondent No.4.
The original petitioner is in appeal aggrieved by the negation of its challenge to an order passed by the Assistant Registrar and consequential dismissal of the writ petition by the learned Single Judge in terms of the order dated 15 March 2018.
The writ petitioner had challenged an order dated 3 February 2018 wherein the Assistant Registrar Firms, Chits and Societies, Allahabad noticed the existence of a rival claim of elections being laid before him for recognition. It is not disputed that while the appellant laid claim to be the lawful management consequent to elections held on 20 December 2015 and the meeting of the General Body alleged to have been held on 20 December 2016, the fourth respondent claimed rights to manage the Society pursuant to the elections held on 17 December 2015. In view thereof, the Assistant Registrar proceeded to refer the dispute for consideration of the Prescribed Authority under Section 25 (1) of the Societies Registration Act 1860.
It is now well settled that the Assistant Registrar exercises no adjudicatory function as such and when faced with rival claims of elections is obliged to refer the dispute to the Prescribed Authority. The 1860 Act creates a forum in terms of Section 24 thereof for adjudication of all election disputes. In light of the settled position in law, the learned Single Judge has, in our considered opinion, rightly upheld the order of the Assistant Registrar dated 3 February 2018 Before us, the learned counsel for the appellant has again referred to certain findings which came to be recorded in the order of the Assistant Registrar dated 22 October 2016 to contend that the impugned order in the writ petition was liable to be set aside.
We find ourselves unable to accept this submission since admittedly on a challenge laid to the order dated 22 October 2016, a learned Single Judge while disposing of Writ-C No. 53902 of 2016 had clearly observed that the same shall be treated only as an order renewing registration of the Society and would not be treated as an order adjudicating a dispute with respect to the office bearers of the Society. This order undisputedly has attained finality.
Accordingly we find no merit in this appeal, which stands dismissed.
Order Date :- 23.8.2018 nethra .
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(Yashwant Varma, J.) (Dilip B Bhosale, CJ.)