The main legal point established in the judgment is the determination of the rightful representation of a sports club based on the registration and control provisions of the West Bengal Societies Registration Act, 1961.

JUDGMENT

Hiranmay Bhattacharyya, J. - The instant appeal is at the instance of the defendant nos. 2 to 5 and is directed against the later part of the order no. 91 dated January 22, 2020 passed by the Learned Judge VIth Bench, City Civil Court at Calcutta in Title Suit no. 1587 of 2018 whereby the application for temporary injunction filed by the respondent no. 1 herein was allowed.

2. The respondent no. 1 filed a suit for declaration that the plaintiff, a registered society is only entitled to represent Vijay Sports Club (for short "the VSC") before various bodies including the respondent no. 2 herein and for a further declaration that the appellants being the trustees of the purported trust is not entitled to use the name of VSC and to represent it before the respondent no. 2 or other authorities and for permanent injunction restraining the defendant no. 1/ respondent no. 2 herein their men and agents and/or permitting the said trust to represent VSC and/or to allow them to participate in the cricket tournaments to be organised by the defendant no 1. A decree for permanent injunction restraining the defendant no. 1 from recognising anybody as VSC other than the plaintiff for participating in the cricket tournament was also prayed for.

3. The case made out by the respondent no. 1 in the plaint of the said suit may be summed up as follows-

4. Vsc was an unregistered association carrying on sport activities like cricket, table tennis etc. and having a permanent tent at Vivekananda Park Tent. The club had several members and they formed an unregistered society for the purpose of management of the sport activities of the club. The defendant no. 3 was the President of the VSC till 06.05.2018 and he used to represent the VSC before the defendant no. 1 for all activities in connection with different tournaments of cricket conducted by the defendant no. 1. In order to continue with its objectives, the members decided that the club should be registered under the Societies Registration Act and accordingly the VSC was duly registered under the said Act on June 18, 2018. In a meeting held on 06.05.2018, a full-fledged committee was elected and none of the defendant nos. 3, 4 and 5 have been elected as the members of the said committee of VSC. VSC was affiliated to the defendant no. 1 since the 1952 and is participating in cricket tournaments organised by the defendant no. 1. The plaintiff came to learn from the defendant no. 1 that the defendant no. 3, as Settlor, formed a trust claiming to be the VSC and the defendant nos. 3, 4 and 5 are claiming to be the trustees of the said trust. The plaintiff issued a letter to the defendant no. 1 dated 24.11.2018 seeking permission to permit their cricket players to participate in the second division tournament for the 2018-19 and onwards and thereafter the plaintiff requested the defendant no. 1 to recognise the plaintiff as VSC being a registered society. The plaintiff alleges that if the defendant no. 1 is permitted to hire the players of the defendant no. 2 on their wrong representation to be the plaintiff's club to play in the ensuing tournaments organised by the defendant no. 1, in such cases the players prepared by the plaintiff's club for participating in the second division tournament organised by the defendant no. 1 will be completely demoralised and the plaintiff was thus compelled to file the instant suit.

5. In connection with the said suit the plaintiff/ respondent no. 1 herein filed an application under Order 39 Rule 1 and 2 read with Section 151 of the Code of Civil Procedure praying for an order of temporary injunction restraining the defendant no. 1 their men and agents and /or permitting the trust to represent VSC and/or to allow them to participate in the cricket tournaments to be organised by the defendant no. 1. A prayer for temporary injunction was also made for restraining the defendant no. 1 from recognising anybody as VSC other than plaintiff for participating in the crick