Allahabad High Court
C/M Dugdheshwar Nath Vidyalaya Society ... vs State Of U.P. And Others on 9 January, 2013
Equivalent citations: AIR 2015 (NOC) 677 (ALL.) FULL BENCH, 2015 (2) ALJ 325
Author: Arun Tandon
Bench: Arun Tandon
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?A.F.R. Court No. - 38 Case :- WRIT - C No. - 51335 of 2011 Petitioner :- C/M Dugdheshwar Nath Vidyalaya Society And Others Respondent :- State Of U.P. And Others Petitioner Counsel :- K. Shahi Respondent Counsel :- C.S.C.,B.D.Pandey,P.C.Pathak,R.K.Ojha Connected With Civil Misc. Writ Petition No.51300 of 2011. Committee of Management, Dugdheshwar Nath Vidyalaya Society and others Versus Deputy Registrar, Firms Societies and Chits, Regional Office, Mohanpuri, Meerut and others. Connected With Civil Misc. Writ Petition No.70222 of 2011. The Committee of Management, Dugdheshwar Nath Vidyalaya Society and another Versus The State of U.P., through the Secretary Finance, U.P. at Lucknow and others. Connected With Civil Misc. Writ Petition No.65115 of 2011. Committee of Management, Dugdheshwar Nath Vidyalaya Society and another Versus The State of U.P., through Secretary Finance, U.P. Shashan Lucknow and others. Connected With Civil Misc. Writ Petition No.63731 of 2011. Committee of Management, Dugdheshwar Nath Vidyalaya Society and another Versus The State of U.P., through Principal Secretary, Finance, U.P. Lucknow and others. Connected With Civil Misc. Writ Petition No.19587 of 2012. The Committee of Management Sri Dugdheshwar Nath Vidyalaya Society and another Versus The State of U.P., through Secretary Higher Education, U.P. at Lucknow and others. ------------------------- Hon'ble Arun Tandon,J.
All these writ petitions are basically against same order and with same relief they have been clubbed and are being decided under this judgment.
Under the order of the High Court passed in Special Appeal No.604 of 2011 dated 26.04.2011, the dispute pertaining to the electoral college for holding fresh elections of the office bearers of the society registered in the name and style of Dugdheshwar Nath Vidyalaya Society, Rudrapur, Deoria was directed to be examined by the Deputy Registrar, Firms Societies and Chits, Meerut after affording opportunity of hearing to the parties concerned. The Deputy Registrar, Firms Societies and Chits, Meerut under the order impugned dated 23.08.2011 has held that the elections under Section 25(2) of the Societies Registration Act, 1960 are to be held from 275 members as per the list submitted by Badri Narayan Jaiswal, as was in existence prior to the date on which dispute had arisen. It is against this order that the present writ petition has been filed.
A writ Court while entertaining the present writ petition on 09.09.2011 after noticing the rival contentions was pleased to pass an interim order, whereby it was directed that the process of election may be completed, but the result of the elections shall not be declared, except with the leave of the Court. The interim order has continued till date.
On behalf of the petitioner, it is specifically contended that the documents which were filed by the opposite parties said to be the original documents were never made known to the petitioner, nor any opportunity was afforded to controvert the same. For the purpose reliance is placed upon paragraphs no.34, 35 and 36 of the writ petition, which read as follows :-
"34. That in compliance of the order passed by this Hon'ble Court dated 26.04.2011 the Assistant Registrar proceeded to decide the matter and a notice was issued for haring in the matter on 06.06.2011 and on the said date Sri Hriday Narain Shukla made a request for granting some time and o the said basis date was fixed for 22.06.2011 which was extended for 06.07.2011 and subsequently the same was fixed for 13.07.2011. It is relevant to point out here that on 22.06.2011 and 06.07.2011 no hearing was taken place and on the date fixed i.e. 13.07.2011 the petitioner no.2 appeared before the Assistant Registrar but on that date Sri Hriday Narain Shukla has appeared and made a request for fixing other date upon which the date was fixed for 1.08.2011 by notice dated 15.07.2011. The petitioner appeared on 01.08.2011 and filed a detailed objection which contains 146 pages and also made a request to the Assistant Registrar to provide the copy of the objection filed by rival parties. On the said date i.e. 01.08.2011 the copy of the objection filed by the respondent no.5 to 9 was not supplied by the Deputy Registrar, Meerut and date was fixed for 12.08.2011. Photo stat copy of the notice dated 15.07.2011 along with the reply filed by the petitioner no.2 on 01.08.2011 are collectively being filed as Annexure No.17 of the writ petition.
35. That on 12.08.2011 the petitioner was busy in some personal ceremony, therefore he filed an application on 11.08.2011, which was received by the office of the Assistant Registrar for fixing any other date.
36. That without considering the application filed by the petitioner on 11.08.2011 no date was fixed by the Assistant Registrar after 12.08.2011 and apart from this on the request made by the petitioner for providing the copy of the objection filed by the other claimants, has not been provided to the petitioner."
In reply to the averments so made in the writ petition, respondent no.5 has filed counter affidavit and in paragraphs no.23 and 24 of the counter affidavit it has stated that the said paragraphs need no comments. Paragraphs 23 and 24 of the counter affidavit filed by respondent no.5 read as follows :-
"23. That the contents of para 32, 33, 34, 35 of the writ petition are matter of record hence need no comments.
24. That the contents of para 36 & 37 are not related to the deponent."
Similarly in the counter affidavit filed by respondents no.1 and 2 in para 7, it has been stated as follows :-
"7. That the contents of paragraph nos. 34, 35, 36, 37 and 38 of the writ petition are not admitted as stated hence denied. In reply thereto, it is submitted that the ample opportunity of hearing was given to all the concerned parties to defend themselves as the petitioners themselves admitted in paras under reply. The petitioner himself was present in the office of answering respondent no.2 on 06.06.2011, 13.07.2011 and 01.08.2011 and produced documents and written statement. The concerned parties have been heard thoroughly on the aforesaid dates."
It is therefore apparently clear that there is only a vague denial to the specific allegations made on behalf of the petitioner that the documents filed by the opposite parties were not made available to the petitioner, nor any opportunity was afforded to controvert the same.
It has further not been disputed that on the last date fixed for hearing of the matter i.e.12.08.2012, an adjournment application was moved by the petitioner, which was not considered and the authority concerned has proceeded to decide the matter ex-parte. It is not in dispute that earlier on three occasions, adjournment was granted on the asking of one of the contesting parties.
Sri R.K. Ojha, learned counsel appearing on behalf of respondent no.5 initially made a submission that the finding recorded in respect of non-membership of the present petitioner has gone unchallenged and therefore no purpose would be served by affording any opportunity of hearing to the petitioner.
The contention so raised on behalf of the respondent no.5 does not appeal to the Court, inasmuch as from the order impugned it is apparent that one of the reasons for disbelieving the documents, which were filed by the petitioner in respect of his membership and the plea that he had been validly enrolled is with reference to the original documents, which were on record. Necessarily these original documents must have been filed by the opposite party and as already noticed above, these alleged original documents were never brought to the notice of the petitioner and no opportunity was afforded to him to meet the same.
In this set of circumstances, this Court has no hesitation to record that the order impugned is in violation of principles of natural justice. The order dated 23.08.2011 passed by Deputy Registrar, Firms Societies and Chits, Meerut is hereby quashed.
The Assistant Registrar, Firms Societies and Chits, Gorakhpur Region, Gorakhpur is directed to make available the documents which have been filed by the contesting parties to each other on application being made for the purposes. The parties shall be at liberty to file reply to the documents so supplied within Ten days of receipt of the documents. The Deputy Registrar shall fix a date for hearing of the matter afresh and shall decide the issue of membership, preferably within six weeks' from the date certified copy of this order is filed before him. Neither any un-necessary adjournment shall be asked for by the parties, nor shall be granted.
For the purpose of obtaining the copies of the documents filed by either side all the parties are directed to appear before the Deputy Registrar, Meerut along with certified copy of this order on 21.01.2013. Next date shall be fixed by Deputy Registrar in their presence.
After hearing the parties as aforesaid, if the Deputy Registrar comes to the conclusion that the electoral college as already determined is lawful and valid, he shall proceed to declare the result of the elections already held. If the finding is otherwise, he shall direct holding of fresh elections from the valid electoral college.
With the aforesaid observations, these writ petitions are allowed.
Order Date :- 9.1.2013.
Rks.