RAM KISHAN Vs. SECRETARY TO GOVT STATE OF HARYANA CO-OPERATIVE DEPT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution we are called upon to construe bylaw 9 (B) (vii) of the Bylaws of the Panipat Co-operative Sugar mills Ltd. , Panipat, district Karnal (hereinafter called the Society) so as to decide whether the period commencing from the date of supersession of the Board of directors of the Society by the Government and terminating with the order of this court setting aside the said supersession is or is not liable to be excluded from the period of one-year at the end of which one-third of the Directors are liable to retire in rotation. The facts leading to the filing of this writ petition are these.

(2.) THE last Board of Directors of the Society was elected on January 8, 1966. There were ten elected Directors and three were nominated by the Government. One-third of the elected Directors were dur to retire after one year of the constitution of the Board of Directors , i. e. on January 7, 1967. The Directors who were to retire had to be selected by drawing lots in a meeting could be held , the board was superseded under Section 27 of the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act (25 of 1961) (herein after referred to as the Act) by order of the State government on and with effect from January 11, 1967. Civil Writ petition No. 89 of 1967, filed by Dharam Singh Rathi, Acting Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Society (respondent No. 4 in the present petition) was allowed by; the order of tek chand , J. , dated August 29, 1967, as the State Government did not oppose the petition. The learned Judge issued a writ certiorari setting aside the order f the Registrar, Co-operative Societies superseding the Board of Directors and also issued a writ in the nature f mandamus restring te Board of Directors and also issued a writ in the nature fo mandamus restoring the Board of Directors of the society which had been removed by the order impugned in that writ petition. On the restoration of the Board, proceedings were taken in hand for retiring the first lot of One-third members of the Board of Directors who were due to retire on january 7, 1967. As a result of the lots drawn for that purpose, one-third of the directors retired on March 18, 1968. These were the Directors who would in the normal course have retired within a short time after January, 7, 1967.

(3.) ON may 20, 1968, the Registrar co-operative Societies, Haryana, Chandigarh (hereinafter called th Registrar) sent a communication (Annexure 'a') to the general Manager of the Society informing the Society that the Government and in consultation with their law Department intimated to the Registrar that the second installment of the annual retirement of ne-third members of the Board of Directors of the Society had become due since January, 8, 1968. . Respondent No,. 4 the vice-Chairman of th Society sent letter , dated nil (copy Annexure 'b') to the secretary to government of Haryana in the Co-operative Department in connection with a copy of the Registrar's letter, dated may 20, 1968, which had been endorsed to the Government saying that the second term had no yet expired as the Board had functioned only for about one year due to its supersession by the government for a period of about 7 1/2 months (from January 11, 19678 to august 2d9,1967), and that one -third of the members of the Board having already retired , the question of retiring another one-third did not arise at that stage. The Vice-Chairman , therefore, asked the Government to examine all these matters before deciding the issue as the Vice-Chairman had consulted the society's Legal Adviser and he was of eh view that the period during which the board had remained under supersession could not be counted in the term of the elected Board of Directors as there was no elected Board of during that time. Ultimately, by memorandum, dated June 18, 1968 (Annexure "c" ) the Registrar informed the General Manager of the Society to convene a meeting of the Board of directors of the Society at 11 A. M. on July 4, 1968, in the premises of the mills of the society for drawing lots to retire the second group of the one-third elected members of the Board. It was desired that a copy of the notice of the meeting should be sent to the registrar 's office. Permission to convene the meeting at a shorter notice in terms of Rule 80 (1) (I) of the Punjab Co-operative Societies rules , 1963 , was also accorded in the same communication. In pursuance of the direction of the Registrar, th General Manager, (respondent No. 3 ) issued notice, dated June 19/20. 1968, (Annexure 'd') to all the members of the Board to draw lots of retirement of the second group of one-third elected members f the Board. It was to quash this above said direction of the Registrar (Annexure 'c') and the general Manager's notice of the meeting (Annexure 'd') that the present writ petition was filed b7y ram Kishan. Chandgi Ram and Dr. Parma Nand, three directors of the Society, on July 2, 1968, during the summer vacation of this court. On the application for interim stay of operation of the order and stay of the holding of the meeting. The vacation Bench (Gopal Singh and Tuli JJ.) directed on july 3, 1968 that the meeting held and lots and drawn on the 4th of July , 1968, but effect might not be given to the result of the drawing of the lots till the writ petition came up for hearing before the Motion Bench. When the petition came up for motion hearing on August 1, 1968, all the respondents were represented before us by Counsel. All the parties were anxious to have the issues involved in the case settled at the earliest possible opportunity. We, therefore, issued notice to the main case from august 5, 19689, and in view of the novelty of the point sought to be argued before us and the same being res integra, we admitted th petition to a Division bench. After hearing the Counsel for the Parties at length in connection with the stay matter we vacated the order which had been passed by the vacation Bench on July 3, 1968, but directed that re -election in place of Directors who had retired as a result of the drawing of lots on July 4 , 1968, may not he held till the date fixed for hearing of the writ petition,. Two separate written statements were filed by respondents No. 2, the Registrar and by the General Manager of the Mills respectively.