Court No. - 19
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 18619 of 2018 Petitioner :- C/M Shri Sanatan Dharm Girls And Boys Schools Association And Another Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 2 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Satya Prakash Singh,Bajrang Bahadur Singh,Sr. Advocate Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Ajay Kr. Srivastava,Sanjay Kr. Srivastava Hon'ble Manoj Kumar Gupta,J.
Heard Sri R.K. Ojha, learned senior counsel assisted by Sri S.P. Singh on behalf of the petitioners, learned standing counsel on behalf of respondents no.1 & 2 and Sri P.N. Saxena, learned senior counsel assisted by Sri Sanjay Kumar Srivastava on behalf of respondent no.3. With their consent, the instant writ petition is being disposed of finally without inviting a formal counter affidavit.
Shri Sanatan Dharm Girls And Boys Schools Association, Lal Kurti Bazar, Meerut is a registered society under the provisions of the Societies Registration Act, 1860. The last undisputed election of the society was held in the year 2011 in which one Satpal Ahuja was elected as Secretary and Ashish Kumar Gupta, who now represents respondent no.3, as Joint Secretary. The petitioners claim that since the term of the Committee of Management under the bye-laws is five years and, therefore, fresh election was held on 6.3.2016 and wherein Satpal Ahuja was re-elected as Secretary and petitioner no.2 as Joint Secretary. It is common ground between the parties that Satpal Ahuja died on 22.2.2017. Petitioner no.2, who claims that he was elected as Joint Secretary in the election held on 6.3.2016, has set up a further claim to the effect that after death of Satpal Ahuja, he was elected as Manager on 5.3.2017. On the other hand, according to respondent no.3, no election as set up by the petitioners, has ever been held. It is also the case of respondent no.3 that he being the Joint Secretary, he was elected as Secretary on 3.3.2017 after death of Satpal Ahuja. It is also the case of respondent no.3 that fresh election was held on 20.6.2017 in which respondent no.3 with Ashish Kumar Gupta as Secretary was duly elected. According to respondent no.3, the alleged election set up by the petitioners dated 6.3.2016 was not submitted till respondent no.3 set up his own election dated 20.6.2017.
The Assistant Registrar by impugned order dated 9.5.2018 has proceeded to validate the election dated 20.6.2017 set up by respondent no.3. By the same order, induction of 102 persons as members by petitioner no.2 has been discarded with liberty to the members to get their rights adjudicated in independent proceedings.
Sri R.K. Ojha, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioners submitted that there was a serious dispute relating to election before the Deputy Registrar and, therefore, he was not competent to examine the said issue. It is urged that he should have referred the dispute to the Prescribed Authority under Section 25 (1) of the Act.
Sri P.N. Saxena, learned senior counsel appearing on behalf of respondent o.3 initially tried to support the impugned order by contending that the election set up by the petitioners, in fact, had not been held, but after some argument, he agreed for the dispute being referred to the Prescribed Authority, provided he is directed to decide the dispute within a specified time, to which Sri R.K. Ojha, learned counsel for the petitioners has no objection.
Accordingly and with consent of learned counsel for the parties, the impugned order dated 9.5.2018 is quashed. The matter is remitted to the Prescribed Authority for deciding the dispute relating to election between the parties within a period of twelve weeks from the date of production of a certified copy of this order before him.
The writ petition stands allowed to the extent indicated above.
(Manoj Kumar Gupta, J) Order Date :- 28.5.2018 SL