Gujarat High Court
Mehsana District Cooperative Milk ... vs Collector Mehsana on 18 August, 2018
Author: Sonia Gokani
Bench: Sonia Gokani
C/SCA/12776/2018 ORDER
IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD
R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO. 12776 of 2018
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MEHSANA DISTRICT COOPERATIVE MILK PRODUCERS UNION LIMITED
Versus
COLLECTOR MEHSANA
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Appearance:
MR MIHIR JOSHI, SR. ADV. with MR DIPEN DESAI(2481) for the
PETITIONER(s) No. 1,2
MR PRAKASH JANI, ADDL.ADVOCATE GENERAL with MS.MANISHA L.
SHAH, GOVT. PLEADER and MR.RONAK RAVAL, ASST.GOVT. PLEADER
for the RESPONDENTS
ADVANCE COPY SERVED TO GOVERNMENT PLEADER/PP(99) for the
RESPONDENT(s) No. 1
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CORAM: HONOURABLE MS JUSTICE SONIA GOKANI
Date : 18/08/2018
ORAL ORDER
1 Draft amendment is permitted. 2 This is a petition under Article 226 of the
Constitution of India where petitioner No.1 is a specified society registered under the Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act, 1961 ("the said Act"
for short), whereas petitioner No.2 is a elected member of the petitioner No.1society. 3 The petitioners have challenged the communication dated 13.08.2018 issued by respondent No.2 the Election Officer whereby, he has directed to convene a meeting of the Page 1 of 10 C/SCA/12776/2018 ORDER members of the Managing Committee of the petitioner Union on 20.08.2018 to elect Chairman and Vice chairman of the society in the following factual background.
4 Petitioner No.1 is a specified Cooperative Society within the meaning of section 74(C) of the said Act, whereas respondent No.2 is the elected member of the managing committee of petitioner No.1Society in the recently held election on 28.11.2015. Petitioner No.1 is district level milk producers' union, which has more than one thousand primary societies as its members. The petitioner is an apex level federal society with a huge turn over of Rs.4270 crores and about six lakh milk producers, who are members of the society and are dependent upon the appropriate and efficient management of petitioner No.1Society. As per section 74(C)(2) of the said Act, the term of office bearer that is of Chairman and Vice Chairman is 2½ years, which expired on 01.07.2018. On expiry of such terms, the District Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Mehsana issued a communication to the Page 2 of 10 C/SCA/12776/2018 ORDER petitioner on 16.07.2018, which was replied to by petitioner No.1 on 31.07.2018 on the ground that the seats of the members of the Managing Committee have fallen vacant, the election of the office bearers may not be held and also raising various issues vide communication dated 16.08.2018, the election was resisted. The District Registrar, however, proposed to the Collector on 08.08.2018 to hold elections of the Chairman and Vice Chairman and appointed respondent No.2 as Election Officer. Accordingly, notice dated 13.08.2018 came to be issued by respondent No.2 fixing the date of election for Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Union to be on 20.08.2018.
5 On various grounds, thus,raised in this petition challenging the election scheduled to be held of Chairman and Vice Chairman of the Union on 20.08.2018, following reliefs are sought by the petitioners: "6. The petitioners, therefore, humbly pray that:
A. The Hon'ble Court be pleased to issue a writ of certiorari or writ in the nature of certiorari or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, quashing and setting aside Page 3 of 10 C/SCA/12776/2018 ORDER the impugned communication/notice dated 13.08.2018 issued by the respondent No.2 at AnnexureA to the petition.
OR IN THE ALTERNATIVE A. The Hon'ble Court be pleased to issue a writ of mandamus or writ in the nature of mandamus or any other appropriate writ, order or direction, directing the respondent No.2 to hold elections of the Chairman and Vice Chairman of the petitioner union at the office of the petitioner No.1 union and not at the Prant Office and be pleased to direct that the said election be videographed and further be pleased to direct that the voting shall be held by show of hands.
B. Pending final hearing and disposal of the petition, the Hon'ble Court be pleased to stay the execution, operation and implementation of impugned communication/notice dated 13.08.2018 issued by the respondent No.2 at AnnexureA to the petition.
C. The Hon'ble Court may be pleased to grant such other and further relief/s as deemed just and proper by this Hon'ble Court in the interest of justice."
6 This Court has heard extensively learned Senior Counsel Mr. Mihir Joshi appearing with Mr. Dipen Desai, learned advocate for the petitioners and Mr. Prakash Jani, learned Additional Advocate General appearing with Ms. Manisha L. Shah, learned Government Pleader and Mr. Ronak Raval, learned Assistant Government Pleader for the respondents.
7 At interim stage, on various issues raised in Page 4 of 10 C/SCA/12776/2018 ORDER this petition after arguing in the matter of interim relief, parties could reach to the consensus of holding the election of the Chairman and Vice Chairman, which is long overdue. On the issue of inclusion of representatives of National Dairy Development Board ("NDDB" for short), however, no consensus could emerge. This Court, therefore, has chosen to examine byelaws, which points out as under: "34(d) One Representative will be from Financial Institutions such as NDDB. Another Representative will be from Mehsana District. Central CoOperative Bank, if finance is availed from Representative. Two Representatives will be changed every year." 8 It is apparent that if the finance is availed from the said financial institute, its representative will be forming part of the general meeting. It is also logical. However, with no finance having been made available by NDDB and at no point of time in the past any representative of NDDB having been issued the notice to participate in the election process of the Chairman and ViceChairman, the said inclusion on the part of respondent No.2 prima Page 5 of 10 C/SCA/12776/2018 ORDER facie, is not found sustainable, as there does not appear to be any reason or justification for so doing it in the present process. Therefore, while passing the order at interim stage for holding election with the consensus of both the parties, noninclusion of the member of NDDB is the direction required from the Court. 9 Upon hearing both the sides as also on considering the factual matrix and laws and the byelaws of petitioner No.1 society, while issuing the notice and permitting the parties to challenge the issue of inclusion of Shri Pradhanji Thakor as the Director, following is the order made by way of interim order, with the consensus of the parties present today although, the direction of inclusion of Shri Pradhanji, one of the private respondents and noninclusion of member of NDDB in the process is by way of an interim order of the court. Accordingly, the following interim order shall govern the parties.
9.1 Notice returnable on 05.09.2018. Mr.Ronak Raval, Page 6 of 10 C/SCA/12776/2018 ORDER learned Assistant Government Pleader waives service of notice for and on behalf of respondents.
9.2 As has been agreed upon by the petitioners and the respondents represented by the State to hold the election of Chairman and Vice Chairman, the same shall be conducted, however, the date of election shall be scheduled on 21.08.2018 at 11:00 a.m. instead of original date of 20.08.2018.
9.3 The place of election shall be the registered office of the Mehsana District Cooperative Milk Producers' Union Limited and not the office of the Prant Officer. 9.4 The agenda notice will be revised and prepared by the Election Officer and shall be sent to the Managing Director on the 19th August, 2018 who has agreed to get the same published in the local newspaper of Mehsana district and also in the vernacular (Gujarati) dailies of Divya Bhaskar and Gujarat Samachar. Page 7 of 10 C/SCA/12776/2018 ORDER 9.5 The revised notice shall not be issued to the representative of NDDB, however, the managing Director has also agreed to send the same to each member of managing committee individually which shall include private respondents and to all other concerned and no issues with regards to the non service is going to be raised by any member of the petitioner no. 1 to thwart the process of election.
9.6 The CCTV cameras shall be installed in the board room,and which should be covering the entire area of premises including the boardroom where the said election meeting is scheduled, to record the entire process. Additionally, this entire process shall be videographed. There shall be two videographers namely (1)Mr. Virendra Rami and (2) Mr. Tushar of Royal Infotech for the said purpose who shall also hand over the copy of recordings soon after the conclusion of election meeting to the Election officer in presence of the Observer. The election officer may also request to the Superintendent of Police, Mehsana, for optimum Page 8 of 10 C/SCA/12776/2018 ORDER number of police personnels to remain present to ensure that the process is not polluted nor hijacked by any miscreants or any unruly elements.
9.7 The election shall be held by secret ballot and not by raising of hands. Mr. A.S. Raghupathy, Additional Registrar, Gujarat High Court shall be an Observer in this process, in whose presence Mr. Bhargav Patel, Deputy Collector and Election Officer shall conduct the election.
9.8 The opening of the ballot box shall be soon after the voting is done by the members and the result also shall be declared there and then only.
9.9 The Election Officer shall maintain the entire record which shall include ballot papers and all other materials, including footage of CCTV cameras and Videos as he even otherwise is required to record at the end of every election. 9.10 The Observer shall also prepare a report to be Page 9 of 10 C/SCA/12776/2018 ORDER submitted to the Court within a week of the scheduled date of election. Remuneration of the Observer to the tune of Rs.25,000(Twenty five thousand only) is agreed to be borne by the petitioners.
10 Let a copy of this order be given to both the sides and also to the Observer for its effective and flawless implementation and execution. Direct service is permitted.
(MS. SONIA GOKANI, J. ) SUDHIR Page 10 of 10