( 1 ) THE petitioner is a member of respondent No. 1 society and has built a bungalow as a member of the said society. It appears that for the purpose of constructing the bungalow the petitioner had taken a loan from respondent No. 1 society in the year 1949 and he was repaying the loan by monthly installment of Rs. 150. 00. The petitioner was indebted to the society to the tune of Rs. 5409-92. As the petitioner failed to repay the loan by installments respondent No. 1 society approached the Assistant Registrar of Co-operative Societies with a request to refer the dispute to the Nominee for adjudication. Accordingly the Assistant Registrar Co-operative Societies referred the dispute to the Nominee for adjudication. Various contentions were taken by the petitioner before the Nominee. At the time of the arguments a further contention was raised that the Nominee had no jurisdiction to adjudicate upon the dispute as the reference may by the Assistant Registrar was illegal and invalid. The Nominee repelled all the contentions and made an award in favour of the respondent No 1 society. The petitioner carried the matter in appeal to the Gujarat State Co-operative Tribunal (hereinafter referred to as the Tribunal ). The Tribunal dismissed the appeal and confirmed the award of the Nominee. The petitioner has challenged the decision of the Tribunal and award of the Nominee in this petition.

( 2 ) MR. H. B. Desai learned advocate who appeared for the petitioner submitted the following propositions for consideration in this petition :- (1) The reference of the dispute to the Registrars Nominee is bad and illegal as the Assistant Registrar had not applied his mind to the existence or otherwise of the dispute and therefore the Registrars Nominee had no jurisdiction to entertain and adjudicate upon the dispute. (2) The Assistant Registrar had no jurisdiction to refer the dispute to the Registrars Nominee for adjudication as respondent Co-operative Society had not resolved in a general meeting to refer the dispute between itself and the petitioner to the Registrar. (3) The claim of the respondent No. 1 society is barred by limitation. The aforementioned propositions will be disposed of in the order in which they are set out.

( 3 ) RE. Ground No. 1. The first contention of Mr. Desai was that while making a reference of a dispute under sec. 98 of the Gujarat Co-operative Societies Act 1961 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) the Assistant Registrar is a quasi judicial authority and has a duty to act judicially and as a necessary corollary the Assistant Registrar must hear the parties before making a reference of a dispute to the Registrars Nominee and if reference is made at the back of the. party without giving any opportunity to the party affected by the dispute to challenge the existence of the dispute the reference would be bad in law and consequently the Registrars Nominee to whom the reference is made would have no jurisdiction to adjudicate upon the dispute. In order to appreciate this contention the scheme of Chapter IX of the Act which provides for procedure for deciding dispute will have to be examined. Sec. 96 provides as to which type of dispute and between what particular parties shall be referred to the Registrar. Sec. 96 provides as under :-96 (1) Notwithstanding anything contained in any other law for the time being in force any dispute touching the constitution management or business of a society shall be referred in the prescribed form either by any of the parties to the dispute or by a federal society to which the society is affiliated or by a creditor of the society to the Registrar if the parties thereto are from amongst the following :- (A) a society its committee any past committee any past or present officer any past or present agent any past or present servant or nominee heir or legal representative of any deceased officer deceased agent or deceased servant of the society or the Liquidator of the society