- (1.) Preliminary These writ petitions and intra-Court appeals, being intrinsically co-related on the basic issue concerning the status of U.P. Postal Primary Co-operative Bank Limited [hereinafter also referred to as 'the Society' or 'UPPCB' for brevity], have been considered together and are taken-up for disposal by this common judgment.
(2.) For a preliminary outline, it could be noticed that the matter concerning status of the Society in question has arisen in the wake of bifurcation of the then existing State of Uttar Pradesh (U.P.) and creation of a new State of Uttaranchal (now Uttarakhand) comprising a few districts of the undivided State of U.P. under the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Act, 2000 [hereinafter referred to as 'the Reorganisation Act of 2000']. The stand of the petitioner No.1 of Writ Petition No.1892 (MB) of 2010 Sri Hemant Kumar [he is hereinafter referred to as 'the petitioner-Hemant Kumar] is that the Society in question, even though earlier functioning as a Co-operative Society under the U.P. Co-operative Societies Act, 1965 [hereinafter referred to as 'the U.P. Act of 1965'], became a Multi-State Co-operative Society [MSCS] under the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 1984 [hereinafter referred to as 'the Act of 1984'] and is now governed by the Multi-State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002 [hereinafter referred to as 'the Act of 2002']. Per Contra, the stand of the Society is that it has always been, and is, functioning as a Co-operative Society under the U.P. Act of 1965 and is not to be governed by the Act of 2002. In fact, it is urged on behalf of the Society that the Act of 2002 is not a valid legislation and at any rate, the provisions contained in its Section 103 for deemed registration of a society as MSCS are invalid.
(3.) In this batch of writ petitions and intra-court appeals, Writ Petition No.1892 (MB) of 2010 was filed on 08.03.2010 by the the petitioner-Hemant Kumar with another petitioner assailing the order dated 22.01.2010 passed by the Joint Secretary (Co-operative) and Central Registrar, Co-operative Societies, New Delhi. By the impugned order dated 22.01.2010, the representation, seeking action qua the Society in question under the Act of 2002 in terms of the Judgment of the Hon'ble Supreme Court dated 20.10.2009 as passed in Civil Appeal No.290/2005 (whereby the Society in question was held to have become MSCS under the Act of 1984 but the issue of change of its bye-laws was left open to be agitated in accordance with law), was rejected by the Central Registrar after observing that the Society in question is, and has always been, functioning as a Co-operative Society under the U.P. Act of 1965.;