- (1.) BY the Court.-Janta Samiti Mahuarl is a society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, vide registration No. 1128/1983-84 dated 28-11-83. It seems that there were rival claim of the office bearers of the Society, who approached the Assistant Registrar Societies Registration, Varanasi regarding their recognition and renewal of the registration. The Assistant Registrar referred the dispute in exercise of power under subsection 1 of Section 25 of the aforesaid Act vide its order dated 11-16-91 to the Sub-Divisional Officer, Karakat, District Jaunpur. Consequent upon this, the Sub-Divisional Officer proceeded with the matter and passed a final order on 7-11-92 for holding a fresh election of the office bearers of the aforesaid Society. These two orders are assailed by means of this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution. The petitioner seeks a relief for quashing these two orders and for issuing a mandamus to the Assistant Registrar and the Sub-Divisional Officer for holding election of the office bearers of the society on the basis of a fresh list of members of the society.
(2.) THE Writ Petition is filed by Janta Junior High School, Mahuari. THE question as cropped up for consideration Is as to how to Janta Junior High School, Mahoari can maintain the petition and what is its legal status. In the petition, there is no disclosure as to the status of the petitioner whether the petitioner is a person, corporate or juristic. Learned counsel appearing for the petitioner Sri Rajeshji Verma was asked to explain the petition as to how the petition is maintainable in the name of the institution, which as per material on record is not a person. In this regard the learned counsel for the petitioner as well as the learned Standing Counsel were heard. There is no quarrel regarding the position that Janta Junior High School, Mahuari is only an educational institution. The learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that the educational institution is a person as such It can maintain the petition. The submission was refuted by the learned Standing Counsel by submitting that the institution has no legal personality of its own and is not a person either legal or juristic and has no locus standi to maintain the petition. He farther submitted that the dispute relates to the office bearers of the society and the institution had nothing to do in the matter and even otherwise it has no locus standi. So far as the next objection relating to locus standi is concerned, we are not inclined to deal with the same as the learned counsel for the petitioner has not addressed the Court on this aspect and he has not been given an opportunity. There is no dispute on the point that only a person cm approach this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution and such may may be human being, secondly, any body capable of acquiring rights and thirdly a corporation or other legal person may also called a fictional person. The person can be classified as natural and artificial The natural persons are such human being as are recognized by law as being capable of having tights or duties end they must have the following characteristics :- (i) They must be living human being, though for certain purposes, existence may be before birth. (ii) He must be recognized by the Stats as a person He must not be civilly dead.
(3.) THE various degrees in which natural persons are capable of having right and are liable to duties, are determined by circumstances to which different consequences have been attached by the systems of law. THEre are different grades of personality which depend upon the freedom, the maturity, the sex, the sanity, the citizenship and so forth of the persons But the dead men cease to be person in the eye of law. THEy become destitute of rights, as well as liabilities though the law may make notice of man's body, his reputation and his estate to a certain extent and in a certain manner. A single human being has many faces of personality. Such as in cases of trusteeship, in the right of beneficiary he is one person, in the right of trustee, he is another person and in his own right he is a third person. Now, there are artificial persons, who may be classified as legal persons and non-legal persons. The legal persons are those who are recognized as such in the eye of law by conferment of status and any such person, to whom the law attributes a legal or fictitious personality. They may be aggregate of human beings or masses of property. They are treated as persons by law as having a capability of interest and therefore, duties. Legal personality is not reached until the law recognizes In a sense, it is a law which clothes with the legal personality. The artificial person may be classified as personality created by a statute. They may be composed wholly of natural human beings or wholly of legal artificial persons, or be a mixture of the two.;