Navapipaliya Vividh Karyakari Seva ... vs State Of Gujarat on 25 August, 2020

[Cites 10, Cited by 0]

Gujarat High Court

Navapipaliya Vividh Karyakari Seva ... vs State Of Gujarat on 25 August, 2020

Bench: Bela M. Trivedi

          C/SCA/9843/2020                                           ORDER




          IN THE HIGH COURT OF GUJARAT AT AHMEDABAD

           R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO.                9843 of 2020
                               With
           R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO.                9848 of 2020
                               With
           R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO.                9859 of 2020
                               With
           R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO.                9876 of 2020
                               With
           R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO.                9877 of 2020
                               With
           R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO.                9878 of 2020
                               With
           R/SPECIAL CIVIL APPLICATION NO.                9879 of 2020
==========================================================
     VALASIMDI VIVIDH KARYAKARI SEVA SAHAKARI MANDALI LIMITED
                 THROUGH ITS CHAIRMAN/SECRETARY
                               Versus
                         STATE OF GUJARAT
==========================================================
Appearance:
MR. P.K. JANI, SENIOR ADVOCATE WITH MR DIPEN DESAI(2481) for the
Petitioner(s) No. 1
MS. JYOTI BHATT, AGP for the Respondent(s) No. 1-2
for the Respondent(s) No. 1,2,4,5,6
MR BHARAT T RAO(697) for the Respondent(s) No. 3
==========================================================

 CORAM: HONOURABLE MS. JUSTICE BELA M. TRIVEDI

                                  Date : 25/08/2020

                             COMMON ORAL ORDER

1. All the seven petitions arise out of the common impugned order dated 06.08.2020 passed by the respondent No. 2 allowing the appeals filed by the respondent No. 3 - Bhikhabhai Chanabhai Gajera, the Chairman, Agriculture Produce Market Committee, Junagadh (hereinafter referred to as "APMC"), and setting aside the amendments in byelaws of the petitioner Socities granted by the Assistant District Registrar, Cooperative Societies, District Panchayat, Junagadh vide the order dated 27.07.2015.

Page 1 of 8 Downloaded on : Wed Aug 26 04:41:37 IST 2020 C/SCA/9843/2020 ORDER

2. Heard the learned Senior Advocate Mr. P.K. Jani with learned advocate Mr. Dipen Desai for the petitioners, learned AGP Ms. Jyoti Bhatt for the respondent Nos.1 and 2 and learned Advocate Mr. B.T. Rao for the respondent No. 3 at length in all the petitions.

3. Rule returnable on 25.09.2020. Learned AGP Ms.Jyoti Bhatt, waives service of notice of Rule on behalf of respondent Nos.1 and 2, and learned advocate Mr. B.T. Rao waives service of notice of Rule on behalf of respondent No. 3.

4. The main thrust of the submissions made by the learned Senior Advocate Mr. Jani for the petitioners is that the impugned order has been passed by the respondent No. 2, which not only lacks reasons and bonafides, but has been passed at the instance of the respondent No.3, who had no locus standi to prefer the appeals. According to Mr. Jani, the respondent No. 3 who is the Chairman of APMC, Junagadh had filed the writ petition being Special Civil Application No.6002 of 2020, when the term of the APMC was over, and under the guise of the order passed by the Court in the said petition to dispose of the appeals within three months, he got the appeals heard and decided with a view to oust of the petitioners societies from the voters list in the election of the APMC declared on 18.07.2020. Mr. Jani further submitted that the petitioners societies had got their byelaws amended and got names of the societies changed after following due procedure as contemplated under the Act Page 2 of 8 Downloaded on : Wed Aug 26 04:41:37 IST 2020 C/SCA/9843/2020 ORDER and the petitioners societies, since 2015 pursuant to the said amended byelaws, are dispensing agricultural credits to their members, however, the respondent No. 2 without assigning any substantive or cogent reasons in the impugned order, set aside the said amendments duly granted by the competent authority, under the guise that the competent authority had not taken into consideration the classification as contemplated under section 12 of the Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act.

5. The learned advocate Mr. B.T. Rao appearing on caveat for the respondent No.3 vehemently objected the very maintainability of the petitions on the ground that the alternative efficacious remedy under section 155 of filing revision application before the State Government was available the petition. To substantiate his submission, Mr.Rao has relied upon the decisions of the Supreme Court in case of Authorized Officer, State Bank of Travancore and Another Vs. Mathew K. C., reported in (2018) 3 SCC 85 and in case of ICICI Bank Limited and Others Vs. Umakanta Mohapatra and Others, reported in (2019) 13 SCC 497. Mr.Rao, taking the Court to the provisions contained in the said Act, more particularly to the Sections 12, 13, 17 as well as the relevant Rules framed under the said Act, submitted that the Assistant District Registrar, Cooperative Societies, while granting the amendments in the byelaws of the petitioners Societies, had not taken into consideration the provisions of Section 12 with Page 3 of 8 Downloaded on : Wed Aug 26 04:41:37 IST 2020 C/SCA/9843/2020 ORDER regard to the classification of the societies, inasmuch as for conversion of the societies from one class to the other, the procedure as required to be followed under Section 17(2) was not followed. Mr.Rao submitted that the procedure for amendment in byelaws has been prescribed under Section 13 read with Rule 6 of the Rules, whereas the procedure with regard to change in the name of the societies is prescribed in Section 15 read with Rule 8 of the said Rules, and that the petitioners Societies had failed to follow the said procedures separately. To substantiate his submissions, Mr.Rao has heavily relied upon the decision of the Division Bench in case of Lekhamba Gopalan Ane Samudayik Sahakari Mandli Limited Vs. State of Gujarat, reported in 2016(0) AIJELHC 236117.

6. Having regard to the submissions made by the learned advocates for the parties and to the documents on record, in light of the provisions contained in the said Act as well as in the Rules, it appears that the Assistant District Registrar, Cooperative Societies, District Panchayat, Junagadh had granted the amendments in the byelaws of the seven Societies (who are the petitioners herein) vide the order dated 27.7.2015, against which the respondent No.3, the Chairman, APMC, Junagadh had preferred seven appeals before the respondent No.2 in the year 2015. In March 2020, the respondent No.3 filed a petition being Special Civil Application No.6002 of 2020 before this Court when the term of Page 4 of 8 Downloaded on : Wed Aug 26 04:41:37 IST 2020 C/SCA/9843/2020 ORDER the APMC was over and the fresh election was about to be declared, seeking expeditious hearing of the said appeals. The Court passed the following order:

"Prayer in the petition is that the appeals pending before the Additional Registrar (Appeals) Cooperative Societies being Appeals No.80 of 2015 to 86 of 2015 are not being decided and the next date of hearing is 23.3.2020.

With a request to the Appellate Authority to decide the appeals within a period of three weeks from the date of receipt of copy of this order, this petition is disposed of. Direct service is permitted."

7. Under the umbrella of the said order, the respondent No.2 took up the hearing of the said appeals on 22.7.2020, when the election programme was already declared by the Director, APMC on 18.7.2020. As per the said programme (page 117), a notification of the election under Section 10(2) of the APMC Act was to be issued on 24.7.2020, and the publication of the preliminary voters' list to be made on or before 6.8.2020. The impugned order came to be passed on the very date i.e. 6.8.2020 setting aside the order dated 27.7.2015 passed by the Assistant District Registrar, Cooperative Societies, permitting amendment in the byelaws of the petitioners Societies, which were in force since last five years. Apart from the fact that the dates of the hearing of Page 5 of 8 Downloaded on : Wed Aug 26 04:41:37 IST 2020 C/SCA/9843/2020 ORDER the appeals and passing of the impugned order by the respondent No.2 are very significant, there is hardly any cogent reasons given by the respondent No.2 in the impugned order for setting aside the order passed by the Assistant District Registrar. The said amended byelaws of the Societies were in force since last more than five years and the petitioner Societies were dispensing agricultural credits to their members accordingly.

8. From tenor of the impugned order, it clearly transpires that the respondent No.3, who was the appellant before the respondent No.2 had sought hearing of the appeals, which were pending since more than five years, considering the ensuing election of the APMC and the respondent No.2 decided the appeals in his favour without assigning any substantive or cogent reasons. The Court, therefore, has reasons to believe that the impugned order has been passed with ulterior motive with a view to see that the petitioners Societies as primary agricultural credit societies, are ousted from the voters' list in the APMC election and they are deprived from participating in the said election.

9. So far as the merits of the appeals are concerned, though Mr.Rao had emphatically submitted that there was violation of provisions contained in the said Act, more particularly of Sections 12, 15, and 17, Mr.Rao also miserably failed to show as to how said provisions were violated by the petitioner Societies by seeking amendments in their byelaws and Page 6 of 8 Downloaded on : Wed Aug 26 04:41:37 IST 2020 C/SCA/9843/2020 ORDER in changing the names of the respective Societies. On the contrary from the documents on record, it prima facie appears that the respective Societies had in their respective special general meetings called on 24.5.2015 proposed the amendments in their bye laws for changing the objects of the societies and the names of the respective societies, and that the same were approved by the members in the said special meeting and that the said proposed byelaws were also approved by the Assistant District Registrar, Cooperative Societies, under Section 13 of the said Act. The Court does not find any substance in the submission made by the learned Advocate Mr.Rao that the Societies were required to follow a separate procedure for changing their names under Section 15 of the said Act. It is pertinent to note that the Rule 8 of the said Rules provides that where a society proposes to change its name under Section 15, it shall do so by an amendment of its byelaws, and that for the amendment in the byelaws, the procedure as contemplated in Section 13 is required to be followed. The said procedure has been followed by the petitioners and approved by the competent authority i.e. the Assistant District Registrar, Cooperative Societies. Be that as it may, the Court is prima faice satisfied that the impugned order passed by the respondent No.2 at the instance of the respondent No.3 lacks cogent reasons as also the bonafides, and the same appears to have been passed after the declaration of the election of APMC with an ulterior motive to oust the names of the petitioners societies Page 7 of 8 Downloaded on : Wed Aug 26 04:41:37 IST 2020 C/SCA/9843/2020 ORDER from the voters' list. It is required to be noted that the names of the members of the petitioner Societies have already been included in the preliminary voters' list as contemplated in Rule 7 of the APMC Rules.

10. In that view of the matter, the impugned order being prima facie arbitrary, illegal and malafide, the same deserves to be stayed and is hereby stayed.

11. The request of the learned Advocate Mr.Rao to stay the implementation of this order is rejected for the reasons stated in the order. Direct service is permitted.

(BELA M. TRIVEDI, J) SINDHU NAIR / VINOD Page 8 of 8 Downloaded on : Wed Aug 26 04:41:37 IST 2020

Unlock Advanced Research with PRISMAI

Gujarat High Court