( 1 ) WHEN Civil Application No. 1552 of 2003 in Special Civil Application No. 5619 of 1999 is taken up for hearing, with the consent of the parties, the main Special Civil Application itself is taken up for final hearing today.

( 2 ) THE short facts of the case are that the petitioner is one of the members of a Cooperative Society, which is divided into three Cooperative Societies. The original Cooperative Society was "vasupujya Smruti Cooperative Housing Society Ltd. " and it has been divided into "vasupujya Smruti Cooperative Housing Society Limited Division-1, Division-2 and Division-3. As per respondent nos. 1 to 5, proper procedure was followed. It appears that a proposal was moved for division and the matter was placed before the General Body of the Society. It appears that certain members were intimated personally. However, 72 members were intimated by Under Postal Certificate (U. P. C. ). The matter was considered before the General Body of the Cooperative Society and ultimately, a resolution was passed for dividing "vasupujya Smruti Cooperative Housing Society Ltd. " into three societies, as referred to hereinabove. The division came to be sanctioned by the Assistant District Registrar, District Panchayat as per decision dated 3rd December, 1996. It is the case of respondent nos. 1 to 4 that such decision came to be implemented by grant of new registration to the other Cooperative Societies, which are formed subsequently on account of the division.

( 3 ) THE petitioner along with other members preferred an appeal before the Additional Registrar (Appeals), Cooperative Societies, being Appeal No. 97 of 1997, against the decision of the Assistant District Registrar of permitting the division under Section-17 of the Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act ("the Act" for short ). The pertinent aspect is that in the said appeal, only Assistant District Registrar was impleaded as party and neither the societies, which were formed on account of the division, were joined as parties nor the original society was joined as party. It appears that the Additional Registrar, vide order dated 30th October, 1998, allowed the appeal and set aside the order of the Assistant District Registrar on the ground that proper procedure was not followed and the petitioner, appellant therein, was not issued notice for the purpose of division under Section-17 (2) of the Act. The society, namely, Vasupujya Smruti Cooperative Housing Society Limited Division-1 and Division-3, through its Chairman, preferred Revision Application Nos. 160 and 161 of 1998 before the State Government against the order dated 30th October, 1998 passed by the Additional Registrar (Appeals ). The State Government, vide its judgement dated 13th May, 1999, allowed the Revision Applications mainly on three counts: Firstly, that the appeal is not preferred within stipulated time limit; Secondly, that there is no prejudice or damage caused to the petitioner herein; and, lastly, that the General Body of the society has resolved for division, and the State Government ultimately quashed the order of the Additional Registrar (Appeals) and confirmed the order of the Assistant District Registrar. It is under these circumstances, the petitioner has approached this Court by way of this petition.

( 4 ) MR. C. G. SHARMA, learned Counsel appearing for the petitioner, contended that the petitioner was not given any notice for division and the petitioner, being a member of the Cooperative Society, was directly affected by the division of such society. He further submitted that in any case, it was mandatory for the society to give notice to all its members and such notice should have been by Registered Post A. D. and notice issued to the members by U. P. C. cannot be said to be sufficient compliance. He also submitted that only few members i. e. 78 members were issued such notice and in any case, all members were not issued notice. He further submitted that time gap of one month, whi