Allahabad High Court
C/M Sri Jawahar Lal Nehru Madhyamik ... vs State Of U.P. And 3 Others on 31 March, 2023
Author: Sunita Agarwal
Bench: Sunita Agarwal
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Court No. - 39 Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 776 of 2022 Appellant :- C/M Sri Jawahar Lal Nehru Madhyamik Vidyalaya And 2 Others Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Appellant :- Jayant Prakash Singh,Sr. Advocate Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Yogesh Kumar Saxena Alongwith Case :- SPECIAL APPEAL No. - 812 of 2022 Appellant :- Smt. Luxmi Devi Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 3 Others Counsel for Appellant :- Yogesh Kumar Saxena Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Jayant Prakash Singh Hon'ble Mrs. Sunita Agarwal,J.
Hon'ble Vikas Budhwar,J.
Heard Sri H.N. Singh learned Senior Counsel assisted by Sri Jayant Prakash Singh learned counsel for the petitioner and Sri Yogesh Kumar Saxena learned counsel for the respondent No.4.
This intra court appeal is directed against the judgement and order dated 09.11.2022 whereby the learned Single Judge has set aside the order dated 12.10.2022 passed by the Deputy Registrar, Firms, Societies and Chits, Kanpur Nagar whereby while declaring the outgoing committee as time barred, list of 28 members of general body, registered on 16.10.2020 under Section 4B of the Societies Registration Act' 1860 has been finalized. The Finance and Accounts Officer of the department of Basic Education Etawah has been appointed as Election Officer in exercise of power under Section 25(2) to conduct the election strictly in accordance with law. Pursuant to the direction issued by this Court in the judgement and order dated 02.12.2021 in Writ Petition No.26987 of 2021 and on 17.05.2022 in Writ Petition No.13796 of 2022.
It is pointed by the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the appellant that the writ petition was filed on 30.10.2022 and on the said date, the election of committee of management of the society pursuant to the order dated 12.10.2022 had already been held. The writ petitioner/respondent No.4 herein had filed her objection to the elections held on 30.10.2022 before the Deputy Registrar, Firms, Chits and Society by moving an application on 01.11.2022. All these facts have been conveniently concealed by the writ petitioner and the order impugned dated 09.12.2022 had been obtained by concealment of material fact.
Sri Yogesh Kumar Saxena learned counsel for the respondent No.4, however, has relied upon the Division Bench judgement as noted by the learned Single Judge to assert that the order dated 12.10.2022 passed by the Additional Registrar was without jurisdiction, in as much as, for finalization of list of members of the society, a meeting of the General body of the society was required to be called.
Learned counsel for the respondent No.4, however, could not dispute the submission of learned counsel for the appellant that the factum of holding of election on 30.10.2022 was not disclosed to this Court. It is sought to be submitted that the writ petitioner/respondent No.4 was not aware of the factum of election. It is also sought to be submitted that the entire election was conducted in a hush-hush manner and there was no occasion for the writ petitioner to bring that fact before this Court.
We do not find substance in the submissions of the learned counsel for the respondent No.4 to the extent that the writ petitioner was not aware of the factum of holding of election on 30.10.2022. The entire matter was proceeded on the premise that the Deputy Registrar had no jurisdiction to pass the order dated 12.10.2022 that too on the writ petition filed by a single member.
In any case, the writ petition has neither been filed by the outgoing committee of management stating that the Registrar had no jurisdiction to hold election under Section 25 (2) of the Act' 1860 nor there is any averments that the petitioner herein did not receive any notice or intimation of the date of holding of the election.
It is an admitted fact of the matter that the name of the writ petitioner has been included in the list of members/electoral college finalized by the Deputy Registrar in the order dated 12.10.2022.
For the fact noted above, it is more than evident that the writ petitioner has succeeded in getting the order dated 12.10.2022 from the Writ Court, by concealment of material fact.
For the aforesaid, while setting aside the order dated 09.11.2022, the matter is relegated to the Writ Court for fresh decision on the merits of the case, giving liberty to the writ petitioner to amend the prayer made in the writ petition incorporating subsequent events occurred after filing of the writ petition.
It goes without saying that any observations herein will not come in the way of the parties before the Writ Court.
Both the appeals are, accordingly, disposed of.
Order Date :- 31.3.2023 Himanshu