A. N. Varma, J. - (1.) -The petitioner who was elected as the Vice President of the Cantonment Board, Lansdowne, Pauri, is aggrieved by a resolution dated September 22, 1986, passed by the members of the Cantonment Board under clause (3) of Section 21 of the Cantonments Act, 1924, removing him from the office of Vice President. The resolution is challenged on the ground that it has not been passed in accordance with the regulations framed under the aforesaid Act in that behalf.
(2.) IN order to appreciate the contention, it will be necessary to have a brief look at the relevant statutory provisions. Section 21 of the aforesaid Act provides that the term of office of a Vice President shall be five years. Subsection (3) of Section 21 lays down : 41 (3) A Vice President may be removed from his office, at a special meeting convened for the purpose on a requisition for the same by not less than one-half of the elected members of the Board holding office, by a resolution passed by a majority of not less than two-thirds of the total number of elected members then holding office and attending and no member other than an elected member, shall have the right to vote on the resolution " Under Section 41 (1) a Board is empowered to make regulations consistent with the Act and with the rules made thereunder to provide for all or any of the matters mentioned therein which include, inter alia, " (a) the time and place of its meetings ; (b) the manner in which notice of the meeting shall be given ; (c) the conduct of proceedings at meetings and the adjournment of meetings ". In the exercise of the powers under Section 44 (1), the Cantonment Board has framed regulations laying down the manner in which notice of the meetings shall be given Two kinds of meetings are provided for in these regulations-ordinary and special. For the removal of Vice President under Section 21 (2) a special meeting is required. Regulation 7 lays down the procedure for calling and convening of special meetings of the Board. It provides that the notice and agenda for a special meeting shall be sent to every member not less than 24 hours before the date and hour fixed for the meeting. Since Regulation 7 was the subject of considerable debate, the same may be extracted here : " (7) Subject to the proviso of Section 38 of the Cantonment Act, 1924, which requires that in certain cases not less than 7 days previous notice shall be given, and the notice and agenda shall be sent to every member not less than- A-3 days before the date fixed for an ordinary meeting, B-24 hours before the date and hour fixed for a special meeting. "
(3.) THE question is whether the petitioner was given the notice and Agenda of the meeting requisitioned by three elected members for considering the resolution for removing him from office in accordance with clause (b) of Regulation 7. It is not disputed that the President had fixed a special meeting on the request of 3 elected members for considering the matter of removal of the petitioner at 12.00 hours on September 22, 1986. A copy of the notice which is dated September 21, 1986 circulated to the members is annexure 2 to the petition. The case of the petitioner is that this notice was not personally served on the petitioner but was handed over to Rajesh Dhyani, his minor son, at 5.00 p. m. on September 21, 1986, who handed over the same to the petitioner only at 8.00 p. m. on that date when the petitioner returned home. The contention, therefore, was that he was not given the mandatory 24 hours notice of the date and hour fixed for the meeting in question.;