IMPORTANT POINT
The court established that the Registrar has the authority to remove members under the APCS Act, and the general body’s actions were in compliance with statutory provisions.

ORDER :

Tarlada Rajasekhar Rao, J.

The present Writ Petition is filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India for the following relief/s:

"…to issue a Writ, Order or Direction more particularly one in the nature of Writ of Mandamus declaring the action of the Respondents 3 and 4 in issuing the proc.No.60/FCS/2022, Dt.17.02.2022 issued by the 4th respondent and the earlier Notice vide Rc.No.10096/B/2020-140, Dt.28.01.2022 issued by the 3rd respondent to the 72nd Petitioner and removing the petitioners from the membership of the 5th respondent Society as illegal, arbitrary and contrary to Section 21 of the A.P. Co-operative Societies Act and also violative of Article 14 of the Constitution of India and consequently set aside the pros.No.60/FCS/2022, Dt.17.02.2022 issued by the 4th respondent with respect to the petitioners herein and to pass…."

2. The 4th respondent vide order dated 17.02.2022, whereby and whereunder, by exercising the powers delegated under Section 21 of the Andhra Pradesh Co-operative Societies Act, 1964 (for short, ‘APCS Act’), has deleted the names of 172 ineligible admitted members from the Somavarappadu Fishermen Cooperative Society Limited, Somavarappadu village, Jaladangi Mandal, Nellore District.

3. The said order is assailed in the present Writ Petition. The learned counsel for the petitioners has mainly emphasized his arguments that the 4th respondent is not vested with jurisdiction to delete the names of 172 members from the said society vested under the APCS Act, which is contrary to Section 21(3) of the APCS Act, as the general body is standalone has the power to remove the members of the society. It is useful to extract the relevant portion of the section. Sub-section (3) of Section 21 of the APCS Act reads thus:

"Where any person, who is not eligible for being admitted as member has been admitted as member or where the member who is disqualified to continue as such under subsection (1) is continued as member, he shall be removed by the General body on its own motion or on a representation made to it by any member of a society or its federal society or its financing bank:

Provided that no member shall be removed under this subsection unless he had an opportunity of making a representation against the proposed action. A copy of the resolution removing the member shall be communicated to such person and on such communication, he shall be deemed to have ceased to be a member of the society. [Substituted by Act No. 22 of 2001, dated 25.4.2001."

4. Learned counsel for the petitioners argues that where any person, who is not eligible for being admitted as a member, has been admitted as a member or that the member of the society to continue as a member, who shall be removed by the general body on its own motion or on a representation made to it by any member of the society or its financing bank and the same shall communicate to the said persons and, on communication, they said ceased to be the members of the society. And also raised that no notice was issued prior to the deletion of the names from the society membership or a copy of the resolution was communicated to the petitioners, by an order in writing, to declare that they shall cease to be members of the society from the date of such disqualification by the general body and no suo moto power is vested with 4th respondent-Assistant Director of Fisheries to remove the members of the society by exercising the jurisdiction that no member shall be removed under sub-section (3) of Section 21 of the APCS Act, by the authorities.

5. In this regard, the respondents have filed their counter and denied all the contentions raised by the petitioners in the Writ Petition and, inter alia, contended that certain members of the 5th respondent society has filed complaint before the institution of Lokayuktha for the State of Andhra Pradesh, vide complaint No.1725/2021/B1/LOK/13544/2021 against the Fisheries Development Officer, Kavali, Nellore District, alleging that