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Explanation II :- A notice and an order given as per this clause to the President, in his absence to the Vice President or any committee members who is holding charge of President or Vice President or to the Chief Executive of a society shall be treated as an order given to the committee of the society.

(e) Every member of the committee superseded under this section shall from the date of order of such supersession stand disqualified to contest in the election to or to be nominated to the committee of any Society or to be appointed as an administrator in any society for two consecutive terms."

"(e) Every member of the committee superseded under this section shall from the date of order or such supersession stand disqualified to contest in the election to or to be nominated to the committee of any Society or to be appointed as an administrator in any Society for two consecutive terms."

(Underline supplied)

13. A perusal of the provisions under Section 32(1)(e) of the KCS Act would reveal that being a member of the Committee superseded under Section 32 of the KCS Act has three fold impacts namely, (i) disqualification to contest in the election to any society; (ii) disqualification to be nominated to the committee of any society and (iii) disqualification for being appointed as an administrator. Having noticed the treble consequences of being a member of a superseded committee in terms of Section 32(1)(e), we will have to look into the questions as to what exactly is the period of its impact and whether it applies only to the society concerned. Clause (e) of sub-section (1) of Section 32 is capable of creating confusion in that regard owing to the absence of proper punctuation. We think it appropriate, in this context, to refer to a decision of the Calcutta High Court in Tarak Chandra Mukherjee and Ors. v. Retan Lal Ghosal and Ors. (AIR 1957 Cal. 257). It is held therein that in construing a statutory provision, no account may be taken off punctuation marks. The reason why that rule came to be laid down was that in old times punctuation marks formed no part of a statute, as passed by Parliament, but were added subsequently when the matter was published in print. It is at least doubtful whether the rule would apply to the construction of modern statutes which are almost always presented to the legislature and passed it in a punctuated form. In the case on hand, Section 32(1)(e) of the KCS Act carries three different consequential disqualifications for being a member of a superseded committee in a row; in the form of phrases and at the same time joined one another by the conjunction 'or'. Therefore, use of commas in between the said consequences given as phrases, is grammatically incorrect and was rightly avoided. But then, the question is whether the words 'any society' and 'for two consecutive terms' employed in the said clause are applicable to all the three disqualifications. We may hasten to state that we are not oblivious of Rule 44(1)(k) of the KCS Rules which provides that no member of the society shall be eligible for being elected or appointed as a member of the society under Section 28 if he was a member of the committee which has been superseded and a period of one year has not elapsed from the date of supersession. Section 28 of the KCS Act deals with the constitution of a committee by the general body of a society for five years, in accordance with the bye-laws and entrustment of the affairs of the society concerned to such committee. A purposive interpretation of Section 32(1)(e) of the KCS Act tend us to take that the legislative intention appears to be that in all the three disqualifications should have effect 'for two consecutive terms' and 'in any society'. It is to be noted that a provision carrying treble disqualifications on being a member of the superseded committee was not there originally in Section 32 or elsewhere the said statute though section 32 dealing with supersession was there in the KCS Act and its solitary consequence was provided under Rule 44(1)(k) in the KCS Rules. We will refer to the unamended Rule 44(1)(k) of KCS Rules, first, and it reads as hereunder:

Subsequently, certain crucial amendments were made to sub-section (1) of Section 32 of the KCS Act including insertion of clause(e) to sub-section(1) prescribing the afore-mentioned three fold disqualifications on the ground of being a member of 'the committee' superseded under section 32 in respect of 'any society' and also with more serious consequences.

According to our considered view, to effectuate such consequences according to the legislative intention it would have been appropriate to have proper use of the punctuation 'Comma (,)'. Punctuation literally means pointing. It is derived from the Latin word punctus which means a point. The punctuation Comma (,) is a little mark which marks the end of a clause or a phrase within a sentence and it gives a hint that something is to follow. In fact, according to us, even without such a punctuation the applicability of the duration viz., 'for two consecutive terms ' to all the three disqualifications, that too 'in any society', could be gathered from the scheme of the KCS Act and the KCS Rules. The word 'terms' used in clause (e) should be understood with reference to the provisions under Section 28(1) of the KCS Act. The words 'for two consecutive terms' cannot be taken as used in such a manner to make it applicable only to one of the disqualifications viz., for being appointed as an Administrator in any society. If it is so narrowly construed the duration of the impact for 'being a member in the committee that has been superseded' in any particular society as relates the right to contest in the election to the committee of that society will be as prescribed in Rule 44(1)(k) of the KCS Rules, and at the same time its impact on the said right as permissible under the KCS Act and the KCS Rules, as relates any other society will amount to life ban. Such a construction of Section 32(1)(e) will make a similar impact as relates the right to be considered for nomination to the committee of any other society. As a result, the disqualification on the ground of being a member in the committee that has been superseded on such a member,as relates the right to be considered for appointment as administrator in any society alone will have a duration of 'two consecutive terms'. It cannot be taken that the legislative intention was to prescribe such a huge different impact period for the three disqualifications that could be visited on a member of any particular society on the ground of being a member of the committee of that society which has been superseded. Thus, taking into account all the aforesaid aspects the legislative intention can only be taken as to make the duration of the impact of 'being a member of the committee that has been superseded' for two consecutive terms 'in any society' as relates all the three consequential disqualifications. Therefore, to promote advance and purpose of the legislation of clause (e) of subsection(1) Section 32 of the KCS Act it has to be construed in that manner.