Branch Manager Almora Urban Co ... vs State Of Uttarakhand And Others on 8 March, 2018

[Cites 0, Cited by 0]

Uttarakhand High Court

Branch Manager Almora Urban Co ... vs State Of Uttarakhand And Others on 8 March, 2018

Bench: Sudhanshu Dhulia

 IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL
           Writ Petition (M/S) No. 384 of 2018
Branch Manager, Almora Urban Co-operative Bank Ltd.
and another                          ....Petitioners
                      Versus
State of Uttarakhand and others
                                     ....Respondents

Present:     Mr. Siddhartha Sah, Advocate for the petitioners.
             Mr. Anurag Bisaria, Standing Counsel for the State/respondent
             nos. 1, 2 & 3.
             Mr. T.A. Khan, Senior Advocate assisted by Mr. Vipul Sharma,
             Advocate for respondent nos. 4 & 5.



Hon'ble Sudhanshu Dhulia, J. (Oral)

The private respondents and their family members had taken several loans from Almora Urban Cooperative Bank Ltd, Branch Meera Marg, Haldwani, District Nainital in the year 2011. Since the loans were not repaid, a recovery proceeding was initiated by the bank and ultimately the matter went for arbitration before the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Almora. The Arbitrator/Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Almora passed an Award on 20.04.2017. This Award has been challenged by private respondent nos. 4 and 5 before the Cooperative Tribunal, Uttarakhand in a revision, which is still pending. During the pendency of the revision before the Cooperative Tribunal, Uttarakhand, the private respondents moved an application before the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Almora who had earlier given the Award. The private respondents sought a recalculation of the amount of the recovery citations. The Registrar, Cooperative Societies/Arbitrator without hearing the petitioner i.e. the Bank rectified the amount to the detriment of the petitioner Bank on the next day itself vide order dated 08.02.2018. Aggrieved, the petitioners have filed the present writ petition.

2. The order dated 08.02.2018 passed by the learned Arbitrator/Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Almora is totally illegal and without jurisdiction for two reasons. Firstly, it has been passed without giving opportunity of hearing to the petitioner Bank and, secondly, in the considered view of this Court, once the Arbitrator has given its Award, he has become functus officio and has absolutely no jurisdiction to change the award even by way of recalculating the amount.

3. In view of the above, the writ petition is allowed. Order dated 08.02.2018 is hereby quashed.





                                  (Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.)
Avneet/                                  08.03.2018

Unlock Advanced Research with PRISMAI

Uttarakhand High Court