- (1.) P. C. Verma, J. By means of this writ petition, the petition ers have prayed for writ of mandamus directing the respondents to give the benefit of loan to the petitioners which has been given to them earlier from the U. P. Postal Primary Cooperative Bank.
(2.) THE above prayer has been made by the petitioners on the grounds that the U. P. Postal Primary Cooperative Bank Ltd. , Lucknow (hereinafter will be re ferred to as the Bank) is a Primary So ciety registered under the provisions of the U. P Cooperative Societies Act, 1965 and it is engaged in the business of Banking. THE Bank obtained the licence from Reserve Bank of India to run its various branches in various Districts of State of Uttar Pradesh as well as in State of Uttaranchal as Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi, Allahabad, Varansi, Dehradun, Nainital etc. and the Reserve Bank of India issued the banking licence to operate the branches at Nainital and Dehradun on 27-7-1996. After the reor ganization, some of the branches of the Bank came under the jurisdiction of State of Uttaranchal for which Reserve Bank of India has not modified the li cence yet and the banking facility is also being available to the general public also. THE various schemes for which the Reserve Bank of India granted licence to the Bank are Saving Bank Scheme, Recurring Deposit Scheme, Fixed De posit Scheme, Special Deposit Scheme and Monthly Income Schemes. THE Bank for conducting the business framed its own byelaws under the provisions of the U. P. Cooperative Societies Act, 1965 (hereinafter mill be referred to as the Act) and under the U. P. Cooperative Societies Rules, 1968 (hereinafter will be referred to as the Rules ). As per clause 3 of the said byelaws, it has been provided that the area of operation of the Bank for the purposes of distribution of loan to its members is limited within the U. P. Postal and Railway Mail Serv ices (RMS) circle. THE permanent and the quasi permanent employees of the Postal Department and RMS Depart ment of U. P. Circle are eligible for be coming members of the Bank under the provisions of Clause 5 (Kha) of the byelaws. THE benefit of loan was being given to all the members of the U. P. Postal Primary Cooperative Bank who are working in the Branches situated in the State of Uttaranchal at Nainital as well as in Dehradun. THE petitioners have alleged that all of a sudden and without any prior information and with out any Resolution, the facility of loan to the members of the Bank working in State of Uttaranchal has been stopped by Respondent No. 5- Vice Chairman, Committee of Management, U. P. Postal Primary Cooperative Bank. Against the said action of Respondent No. 5, the petitioners also made a representation on 01-02-2006. It has been alleged that till date U. P. Postal Primary Bank Society has not been divided and the assets and liabilities of the branches of the Bank has also not been bifurcated. It has also been stated that the petitioners are per manent members of the Postal Depart ment and are posted at Almora, Nainital and Dehradun. It is also alleged that the petitioners are the members of the bank and till date no action has been taken by the management to remove the peti tioners from the membership of the, so ciety and they are particularly devoting themselves in the interest of the Public who have deposited the money in the several schemes of the Bank. It has been alleged that the petitioners have the right of loan which has been provided to them by the Bye-laws of the society and the same is one of the main aims and objects of the society and the respond ents are not providing the benefit of loan to the petitioners even when the petitioners applied for the loan from the Bank. THE U. P. Postal Primary Coopera tive Bank filed a writ petition before the Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench. Lucknow and the Allahabad High Court, Lucknow Bench, Lucknow vide its judgment and order dated 10-11-2004 dismissed the writ petition filed by the Bank. Against the said judgment dated 10-11-2004, the U. P. Postal Pri mary Cooperative Bank preferred a Spe cial Leave Petition before the Hon'ble Supreme Court as stated in para 12 of the writ petition. The respondent Nos. 4 and 5 have contested the case by filing their counter affidavit stating therein that the Committee of Management of the Bank was constituted on 18-10-2005 but the election of the Managing Committee of the banks branches at Nainital and Dehradun could not be made due to the instructions of Deputy Registrar, Lucknow. Hence, the Loan Committee also could not be constituted at Nainital and Dehradun Branches of the Bank. The Deputy Registrar, Lucknow Region, Lucknow had requested the Registrar, U. P for determining the responsibilities of the said branches of the Bank and for division of the assets. The Bank vide letter dated 3-12-2005 requested the Deputy Registrar, Lucknow Region, Lucknow to issue necessary directions as to in which manner the loan can be sanctioned to the members of Nainital and Dehradun Branches of the Bank and whether the members of the said Branches can be sanctioned loan by the Head Office at Lucknow or some other neighbouring Branches. We have heard Sri Ashish Joshi, learned counsel for the petitioners, Sri Sudeep Seth assisted by Sri Vinod Tewari, learned counsel for Respondent No. 4, Sri K. R Upadhyaya, learned standing counsel for State of Uttaranchal and Sri S. RS. Panwar, Id. Additional Chief Standing Counsel for State of U. P. and perused the entire material available on record.
(3.) THE U. P Reorganization Act, 2000 came into force on and from 09-11-2000 (hereinafter to be referred as appointed day ). On and from the ap pointed day, the State of Uttaranchal came into existence and the State of Uttaranchal was included in the list of States contained in Schedule-IV of the Constitution of India. Under the U. P Reorganization Act, the undivided State of Uttar Pradesh has been defined as ex isting State of Uttar Pradesh and the State of U. P and State of Uttaranchal have been defined as 'successor state under the said Act. THE existing State and successor State as defined in U. P Reorganization Act as well as the law made under the said Act are reproduced as under: "existing State of Uttar Pradesh" means the State of Uttar Pradesh as existing immediately before the ap pointed day; "successor State", in relation to the existing State of Uttar Pradesh, means the State of Uttar Pradesh or Uttaranchal; "law" includes any enactment, ordi nance, regulation, order, bye-law, rule, scheme, notification or other in strument having, immediately before the appointed day, the force of law in the whole or in part of the exist ing State of Uttar Pradesh. In the U. P Reorganization Act, the Parliament has made a provision for operation of laws of the existing State of U. P. in State of Uttaranchal under Sections 86 and 87 until a law is made by the State of Uttaranchal. Sections 86 and 87 of the said Act reads as under : 86. Territorial extent of Laws-The pro visions of Part II shall not be deemed to have affected any change in the territories to which the Uttar Pradesh Imposition of Ceiling of Land Hold ing Act, 1961 and any other law in force immediately before the ap pointed day, extends or applied, and territorial references in any such law to the State of Uttar Pradesh shall, until otherwise provided by a compe tent Legislature or other competent authority be construed as meaning the territories within the existing State of Uttar Pradesh before the ap pointed day. 87. Power to adapt laws - For the purpose of facilitating the application in relation to the State of Uttar Pradesh or Uttaranchal of any law made before the appointed day, the appropriate Government may, before the expiration of two years from that day, by order, make such adaptations and modifications of the law, whether by way of repeal of amendment, as may be necessary or expedient, and thereupon every such law shall have effect subject to the adaptations and modifications so made until altered, repealed or amended by a competent Legislature or other competent au thority. Explanation - In this section, the ex pression "appropriate Government" means as respects any law relating to a matter enumerated in the Union List, the Central Government, and as respects any other law in its applica tion to a State, the State Govern ment.;