RAN SINGH MALIK Vs. REGISTRAR CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners, who claim themselves to be the members of the Managing Committee of the Hisar Animal Husbandry Cooperative House Building Society Ltd. , Sunder Nagar, Barwala Road, Hisar, have challenged the order of the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Haryana, Chandigarh dated May 21,1993, affirming, on appeal, the order of the Deputy Registrar (Stores), Cooperative Societies, Haryana, Chandigarh dated April 16,1993, accepting the election petition, setting aside. the election of the petitioners as members of the Managing Committee of the aforesaid Society held on November 14, 1991 and ordering fresh voters list, in this petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) DR. Hari Singh Dahiya, a Member of the Animal Husbandry House Building Cooperative Society Ltd. , Hisar ('the Society' for short), challenged the election of the petitioners as Members of the Managing Committee of the Society held on November 14, 1991 through an election petition. The Deputy Registrar (Stores), Cooperative Societies, Haryana, Chandigarh, after recording the evidence, arrived at the following conclusions: i) Proper electoral rolls/voters lists were not prepared by the Election Manager. As against the total number of 769 members of the Society, the Election Manager only submitted a list of 560 members to the Returning Officer for his approval. Since proper list of voters was not prepared, a large number of members of the Society could not exercise their right of vote. Reliance was placed on the statement of Shri Lok Nath Verma, Returning Office, recorded on June 8, 1992, to arrive at this conclusion;

(3.) BEFORE us, the learned counsel for the petitioners challenged the conclusions arrived by the Deputy Registrar (Stores) stated supra. He made the following submissions: