B THANKAPPAN Vs. TRIVANDRUM DIST CO OP BANK LTD

JUDGEMENT

(1.) An important question concerning the construction of S.82 of the Co-operative Societies Act, 1969 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") arises for decision in this writ appeal. The question is : When could it be said that an award of an Arbitrator had been made the subject-matter of an appeal before the Co-operative Appellate Tribunal ?

(2.) The appellant-writ petitioner was party to a dispute before the Arbitrator appointed under the Act. The decision turned out to be adverse to him. Aggrieved by the decision, he filed an appeal. That was, however, beyond the prescribed time. A petition for condonation of delay in filing of the appeal was duly considered by the appellate Tribunal. The intrinsic contradictions in the application were such that the Tribunal was not convinced of any sufficient cause for the delay in filing the appeal. That circumstance, however, did not dash the hopes of the appellant. He attempted to salvage his cause - successfully as it then turned out - by a revision under S.84. He was, initially, confronted with a preliminary plea that the revision was not maintainable. The Tribunal, however, overruled it. Later it went into the merits, and decided the matter to the substantial satisfaction of the appellant. It followed, as a corollary, that the Society was, in equal measure, unsatisfied with the revisional decision of the Tribunal. The two orders of the Tribunal, the preliminary one sustaining the maintainability of the revision, and the later one on merits, were both challenged before this Court.

(3.) The learned single Judge took the view that the revision was not maintainable. Consequently the revisional orders of the Tribunal were quashed. It is this judgement of the learned single Judge that is attacked in the appeal.