JUDGMENT :

MANISH CHOUDHURY, J.

1. The petitioners, 5 [five] in nos., have joined together to institute the instant writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India seeking inter-alia a writ in the nature of certiorari to set aside an order dated 19.10.2022 passed by the respondent no. 3 i.e. the Zonal Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Silchar Zone, Silchar, whereby the petitioners were directed to be removed from the Board of Directors of M/s Jamira Samabay Samity Ltd.

2. The events leading to the passing of the impugned order by the respondent no. 3 need a brief narration of the previous events.

3. M/s Jamira Samabay Samity Ltd. [hereinafter referred to as ‘the Society’ for short] is a cooperative society registered under the provisions of the Assam Cooperative Societies Act, 2007 [‘the Act, 2007’ and/or ‘the 2007 Act’, for short]. The Annual General Meeting [AGM]/Election of the Board of Directors of the Society for the year: 2022-2023 was held on 16.05.2022 pursuant to a notice dated 11.04.2022 for the same. As per the schedule of the AGM/Election for the year: 2022-2023, the petitioners submitted their nomination papers and the petitioners were declared eligible to contest for the Election for directorship in the Society. Accordingly, the petitioners contested the Election and after the counting process, it was declared that the petitioners had received the requisite nos. of votes to be elected as the Directors of the Society in the Election so held on 16.05.2022. The Returning Officer for the Election had accordingly issued respective Certificate of Winner in favour of the petitioners certifying that the petitioners were elected as Directors of the Society.

4. After the AGM/Election of the Society for the year: 2022-2023, the first meeting of the newly elected members of the Board of Directors of the Society was held on 24.05.2022 wherein the newly elected members of the Board of Directors of the Society had unanimously elected one Sri Nihar Ranjan Das as the Chairman and one Sri Abdus Salam Laskar as the Vice-Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Society. The proceedings of the AGM/Election dated 16.05.2022 and the first meeting dated 24.05.2022 of the newly elected Board of Directors of the Society were approved by the concerned authority and accordingly, the newly elected Board of Directors of the Society started functioning.

5. On 12.09.2022, 11[eleven] members of the Board of Directors of the Society including the petitioners, had submitted a requisition/letter before the respondent no. 3 expressing want of confidence in the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Society and requested the respondent no. 3 to take necessary action for removal of the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Society. On receipt of the requisition/letter dated 12.09.2022, the respondent no. 3 vide his letter dated 13.09.2022 forwarded the requisition/letter dated 12.09.2022 to the respondent no. 4 i.e. the Assistant Registrar of Cooperative Societies, Hailakandi with a request to look into the matter.

6. Finding that no action was taken on the requisition/letter dated 12.09.2022, 10 [ten] nos. of Directors of the Society including the petitioners, had again submitted a requisition/letter dated 07.10.2022 to the respondent no. 5 i.e. the Secretary of the Society stating that they had lost confidence in the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Society and expressing that they had withdrawn their support from him, requested the respondent no. 5 to convene a meeting of the Board of Directors of the Society in terms of sub-section [2] of Section 43 of the Act, 2007. The requisition/letter dated 07.10.2022 was duly received by the respondent no. 5 on that day itself.

7. It transpires that immediately after submission of the requisition/letter dated 12.09.2022 [supra], two stakeholders of the Society i.e. the respondent no. 8 and the respondent no. 9 submitted an appeal/representation dated 13.09.2022 to the responden