Allahabad High Court
S.P. Prakash And Another vs Christ Church College Society And ... on 24 February, 2020
Bench: Bala Krishna Narayana, Rohit Ranjan Agarwal
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD Reserved Court No. - 4 Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 1718 of 2012 Appellant :- S.P. Prakash And Another Respondent :- Christ Church College Society And Others Counsel for Appellant :- Suresh Chandra Dwivedi,Ankush Tandon,Jitendra Kumar Srivastava,Kesri Nath Tripathi Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,A.D.Saunders,Illegible Connected with Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 1719 of 2012 Appellant :- S.P. Prakash And Another Respondent :- C/M Thru Its Secry. Conel Swing And Others Counsel for Appellant :- Suresh Chandra Dwivedi,Ankush Tandon,Kesri Nath Tripathi Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,A.D. Saunders,Nand Lal Maurya,Saral Srivastava Connected with Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL DEFECTIVE No. - 938 of 2012 Appellant :- S.P. Prakash And Another Respondent :- Christ Church College Society And Others Counsel for Appellant :- Pradeep Upadhyaya,Ankush Tandon,Kesari Nath Tripathi Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,A.K. Pandey,Shailendra Hon'ble Bala Krishna Narayana,J.
Hon'ble Rohit Ranjan Agarwal,J.
(1) These three special appeals arise out of a common judgment and order dated 9.8.2012 passed by Learned Single Judge of this High Court by which Civil Misc. Writ Petition No. 23731 of 2011 (Christ Church College Society, Kanpur through its Secretary Dr. Parvez E. Deen, Principal Christ Church College, the Mall, Kanpur. Vs. State of U.P. and others) was allowed and the order impugned before the Learned Single Judge dated 8.4.2011 passed by respondent no. 3, Deputy Registrar, Firms Society and Chits, Kanpur was quashed. The respondent no. 1, Christ Church College Society, Kanpur through its Secretary Dr. Parvez E. Deen, Principal Christ Church College, the Mall, Kanpur in Special Appeal No. 1718 of 2012 and petitioner in Writ Petition No. 23731 of 2011 which was treated as leading writ petition by Learned Single Judge, Committee of Management, through its Secretary Conel Swing and Another, respondents in Special Appeal No. 1719 of 2019 and petitioners in Writ Petition No. 44765 of 2011 and Christ Church College Society through it's President Rt. Rev Morris Edgar Dan, Bishop Diocese of Lucknow and Another, petitioners in Writ Petition No. 66313 of 2011 and respondents in Special Appeal Defective No. 938 of 2012 had filed the aforesaid writ petitions assailing the order dated 8.4.2011 passed by respondent no. 3, Deputy Registrar, Firms Society and Chits, Kanpur. The appellants were contesting respondents in all the aforesaid three writ petitions namely S.P. Prakash, appellant no. 1, and Liyakat Marquise Khan, appellant no. 2.
(2) The order impugned in the aforesaid three writ petitions dated 8.4.2011 was passed by the respondent no. 3, Deputy Registrar, Firms Society and Chits, Kanpur treating the appellants to be the valid office bearers of the Christ Church College, the Mall, Kanpur which runs Christ Church College, the Mall, Kanpur entitle to manage the affairs of the society.
(3) Briefly stated the facts of the case are that Christ Church College Society, Kanpur is registered under the provisions of Societies Registration Act, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as the "Act, 1860"). It was registered on 30th May, 1956. It has its own memorandmum, rules and regulations. It runs Christ Church College, Kanpur. There is also a trust known as The Church of North India which was inaugrated on 29th November, 1970 and within the said church, there is Diocese of Lucknow and the first Bishop was Rt. Reverend Deen Dayal, who was installed on 13th December, 1970. The Lucknow Diocesan Trust Association (hereinafter referred to as the "LDA") is a charitable and a religious Trust incorporated in the year 1924 and registered under the Indian Companies Act, 1913. All the properties of the Church particularly the Church of India, Pakistan, Burma and Ceylon were owned or managed and controlled by the LDTA. After the unification of Churches, all the properties within the Diocese of Lucknow were under the jurisdiction of the LDTA. The Registrar of the Societies after the year 1970 accepted the resolution passed by the Society with Rt. Rev. Deen Dayal, Bishop of Lucknow, Church of North India, as its Chairman. List of elected members was submitted to the Registrar of Societies who accepted the same and had renewed the certificate of registration of the Society from time to time. It is set out that the Diocesan Council of the Lucknow Diocese made a recommendation dated 21.8.1973 to the Executive Committee of the Synod of the Church of North India for its division i.e. Diocese of Lucknow and Diocese of Agra covering its defined territory. The Western part as defined, came under the Dioceses of Agra and the Eastern part came under the Diocese of Lucknow. On 9th April, 1960, the first meeting of the Diocesan Council of the Diocese of Agra was held and from the date, as per the constitution of the Church of North India, both the Diocese of Lucknow and LDTA effectively divested all their rights, duties, functions, liabilities, assets etc. and vested beneficial ownership to the Diocese of Agra for all times to come through Bishop of Agra in the territories of Agra till a charitable Company was incorporated in October, 1988 with the approval of executive Committee of the Church of North India, Synod. Accordingly, the Agra Diocesan Trust Association (hereinafter referred to as the "ADTA") has been incorporated as Charitable Company in October, 1988. The Bishop of the Diocese of Agra is the Chairman of the ADTA. Kanpur was included in the Diocese of Agra. It is stated that in view of this, the jurisdiction of the Christ Church College Society, Kanpur shifted from the Diocese of Lucknow to Diocese of Agra. The first Bishop of Diocese of Agra was Rt. Rev. A.V. Jonathan. It is stated that the creation of Diocese of Agra, incorporation of ADTA, and appointment of Bishop of Agra, it became necessary to incorporate changes in the Memorandum and Ruules & Regulations of Christ Church College Society, Kanpur. Accordingly, in the year 1986, a resolution was passed for amendment in Rules & Regulations of the Society and the resolution and the amended Memorandum and Rules & Regulations of the Christ Church College Society, Kanpur were submitted to the Registrar of Societies for intimation. The registration of the Society was renewed from time to time and it was last renewed on 18th February, 2006 w.e.f. 10th October, 2005 for a period of five years.
(4) The order was passed by the respondent no. 3 on 28.4.2010 whereby the renewal of the Deputy Registrar, Firms Society and Chits, Kanpur (hereinafter referred to as the "society") was cancelled and further directions were issued to appellant no. 1, S. P. Prakash to file papers and renewal fees for the renewal of the society registration.
(5) The aforesaid order was challenged by the respondent no. 1 before this Court in Writ Petition No. 28575 of 2010 which was allowed by the Learned Single Judge who after quashing the order dated 28.4.2010 directed the Deputy Registrar to proceed with the matter and refer the same to the State Government under Section 3B of 1860, Act as applicable to the State of Uttar Pradesh.
(6) Aggrieved by the order dated 28.4.2010, appellant no. 2, Liyakat Marquise Khan filed a Special Appeal (Defective) No. 731 of 2010 (Liyakat Marquise Khan Vs. Christ Church College Society, Kanpur and others) which was allowed and the order of the Learned Single Judge was set aside and the matter was remanded to the Deputy Registrar with the following directions :
(i) The order passed by the Deputy Registrar on 26th July, 2013 is quashed and set aside as being without jurisdiction;
(ii) The Deputy Registrar is directed to make a reference under Section 25(1) of the Societies' Registration Act, 1860 to the Prescribed Authority within a period of two weeks of the receipt of a certified copy of this order;
(iii) The Prescribed Authority shall upon receipt of the reference under Section 25(1) decide upon the reference within a period of three months of the receipt of the reference;
(iv) The Deputy Registrar shall thereafter take necessary steps under Section 4 upon receipt of the order of the Prescribed Authority expeditiously.
(7) Since the matter kept pending before the Prescribed Authority after passing of the order dated 11.8.2010 by Special Appellate Court, the respondent no. 1 filed a Writ Petition No. 59988 of 2010 with the prayer that the representation filed by him before the State Government on 14.08.2010 be directed to be decided.
(8) The aforesaid writ petition was disposed of by the Learned Single Judge by order dated 29.9.2010 whereby the Deputy Registrar was directed to proceed with the matter in the light of the directions issued by the Division Bench in it's order dated 11.08.2010.
(9) The respondent no. 3 in this appeal after considering the submissions advanced before him by the learned counsel for the parties and scrutinizing the material brought on record by them in support of their respective claims of being the valid office bearers of the society held the appellants to be the valid office bearers of the Christ Church College, the Mall, Kanpur which runs Christ Church College, the Mall, Kanpur entitle to manage the affairs of the society.
(10) The order dated 8.4.2011 passed by the respondent no. 3 was assailed by the respondent no. 1 in all the writ petition nos. 23731 of 2011, 66313 of 2011 and 44765 of 2011 which were heard together and allowed by a common judgment dated 9.8.2012 passed by Learned Single Judge which is impugned in these appeals.
(11) Learned counsel for the appellants has assailed the order passed by the Learned Single Judge on several questions. However, he has not been able to show whether in the teeth of the specific directions issued by the Special Appellate Court in Special Appeal (Defective) No. 731 of 2010 (Liyakat Marquise Khan Vs. Christ Church College Society, Kanpur and others) to the Deputy Registrar to make reference under Section 25(1) of the Societies' Registration Act, 1860 to the Prescribed Authority and a corresponding direction issued to the Prescribed Authority to decide the reference under Section 25(1) of the Societies' Registration Act, 1860 within a period of three months after the receipt of the order of the Prescribed Authority which has attained finality and the further direction issued to the Deputy Registrar to take necessary steps under Section 4 of the Societies' Registration Act, 1860 after the receipt of the order of the Prescribed Authority the Deputy Registrar was left with any discretion to decide the matter otherwise than in terms of the aforesaid directions issued by the Special Appellate Court in Special Appeal (Defective) No. 731 of 2010.
(12) In our opinion, once the Special Appellate Court had issued specific directions vide its order dated 28.4.2010 in terms of which the Deputy Registrar was directed to proceed, he was not at all justified in holding the appellants to be the valid office bearers of the Christ Church College, the Mall, Kanpur which runs Christ Church College, the Mall, Kanpur and hence entitle to manage the affairs of the society.
(13) In view of the above, any further adjudication upon the other grounds on which the appellants have assailed the impugned order would be purely an academic and futile exercise.
(14) We do not find any reason to interfere with the order passed by the Learned Single Judge.
(15) All the three appeals lacks merit and are accordingly dismissed.
Order Date :- 24.2.2020 SA