Court No. - 16
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 25110 of 2018 Petitioner :- C/M Janta Inter College And Another Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Uma Nath Pandey Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Nitinjay Pandey
Hon'ble Mrs. Sangeeta Chandra,J.
Oral I have heard Sri Ashok Khare, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Sri Rama Nath Pandey for the petitioners and Sri Nitinjay Pandey for the respondent no. 4 and the learned standing counsel for the State respondent nos. 1 to 3.
It has been submitted by learned counsel for the petitioners that there is an Institution, namely Janta Inter College, Sallahpur, District Auraiya which is duly recognised and aided Institution. Under the Scheme of Administration approved by the Education Authorities elections of the Committee of Management was held on 14.6.2015 in which the petitioner no. 2 Sobaran Singh was elected as Manager, his signatures were also attested on 6.8.2015. The electoral college consisted of 59 members. The term of Committee of Management was due to expire on 14.6.2018, but before such date could arrive, one Himanshu Yadav set up an election dated 4.2.2018 showing himself to be elected as Manager and one Pratap Singh elected as President. The District Inspector of Schools recognised the said election on 16.2.2018.
The petitioners being aggrieved by the action of the District Inspector of Schools by Writ-C No. 12568 of 2018 (Committee of Management Janta Inter College Vs. State of U.P). This writ petition was allowed by this Court by its order dated 5.4.2018.
This Court in its order dated 5.4.2018 observed that a fresh date for election shall be notified in the first week of June 2018, the District Inspector of Schools shall appoint an Observer and after elections are held, he shall pass an appropriate order within time prescribed in its judgment and order dated 5.4.2018.
The District Inspector of Schools in purported compliance of the order passed by this Court on 5.4.2018 asked the Deputy Registrar to send a list of valid members of the Society and the Deputy Registrar, Chits, Firms and Societies supplied such list without indicating therein that the list being so supplied was already under cloud due to objections filed by the petitioner no. 2 along with Suraj Prakash Gupta - the alleged President of the outgoing Committee.
The Deputy Registrar had infact issued notice to Himanshu Yadav directing him to file his reply to the objections filed by the petitioners and Suraj Kumar Yadav to the list got registered fraudulently by Himanshu Yadav in the office of the Deputy Registrar.
The notices sent by the Deputy Registrar dated 8.5.2018 and 23.5.2018 have been filed as Annexures 7 & 8 to the writ petition. The said notices clearly indicate the objections that have been filed by the petitioner and Sri Suraj Prakash Gupta to the said list. While these objections were under consideration, the same list was supplied by the Deputy Registrar to the District Inspector of Schools as constituting a valid electoral college.
The election programme was published by the District Inspector of Schools on 25.5.2018 in the newspaper and elections were held thereafter. The petitioner along with others all life members of the Society had also filed their objections before the District Inspector of Schools on 2.6.2018 mentioning therein that the Deputy Registrar had already taken cognizance of their objections filed before him and proceedings in relation to the wrong finalisation of list of members of the general body were still pending before the Deputy Registrar. Disregarding such objections, the elections held on 3.6.2018 were approved by the District Inspector of Schools on 11.6.2018. Aggrieved by such approval given to the elections by the District Inspector of Schools this writ petition has been filed.
Learned counsel for the respondent no. 4 has pointed out to this Court that this writ petition is not maintainable. He has referred to a judgment rendered by a Coordinate Bench of this Court in Writ-C No. 15797 of 2015 (Ram Pyare Lal Vs. State of U.P. & others) rendered on 7.4.2015. The Coordinate Bench of this Court was considering an order dated 4.3.2015 by which electoral college of the society has been determined and an election schedule was announced. The writ petitioners were challenging the non inclusion of 54 members in the said list finalised by the respondent no. 5 therein.
This Court observed that the name of the petitioner was mentioned in the list finalised by the Assistant Registrar as a member of the general body. The writ petition did not state whether the writ petitioner was espousing his own right individually or that of all the 54 members whose names have not shown in the electoral college finalised by the Assistant Registrar.
This Court found that the petitioners being included in the electoral college and he being not directly affected by the order impugned, the writ petition was dismissed on the ground of lack of locus standi of the writ petitioner to maintain this writ petition.
In the case of the petitioners herein, this Court has found that the petitioner no. 2 – the erstwhile Manager of the College along with Suraj Prakash Gupta had submitted an objection before the Deputy Registrar saying that the list finalised by him allegedly submitted by Himanshu Yadav containing signatures of Suraj Prakash Gupta and the petitioner was a forged list. The petitioner and Suraj Prakash Gupta had not signed the said list that was submitted by Himanshu Yadav and it contained names of several persons who were not actually members whereas out of 27 life members, 18 life members had submitted their affidavits to the Deputy Registrar saying that their names had been wrongly excluded from the list. It was this list submitted by Himanshu Yadav which was utilised by the District Inspector of Schools during the pendency of the objections of the petitioner for the conduct of the elections on 3.6.2018, and thereafter the impugned order dated 11.6.2018 has been passed.
This Court is of the considered opinion that the petitioner's objections were still under consideration in the list supplied by the Deputy Registrar to the District Inspector of Schools, such list could not have been recognised as the valid list of members of the electoral college for holding the elections.
Even so now that the elections have been held and they have been recognised by the District Inspector of Schools, Auraiya whereas the objections pending before the Deputy Registrar regarding non inclusion of certain life members and inclusion of names of such members who were not actually members still remained to be decided by the Deputy Registrar, it shall be open for the Deputy Registrar to come to an independent decision after hearing all parties concerned. Such independent decision taken by the Deputy Registrar with regard to Constitution of general body of the Society shall prevail over the earlier list submitted by Himanshu Yadav. The elections so recognised by the impugned order of the District Inspector of Schools dated 11.6.2018 shall also abide by the final decision taken by the Deputy Registrar. The Deputy Registrar shall take such decision within a period of eight weeks from the date a certified copy of this order is produced before him.
The writ petition is disposed of.
Order Date :- 21.8.2018 Arif