The judgment established that the grant of registration to another society in the same area did not violate the principles of natural justice, and the petitioner had no locus standi for challenging the order.

1. This writ petition has been brought by a co-operative society by name the Alleppey Co-operative Land Mortgage Bank Ltd. through its President and the question raised relates to the validity of an order dated 9th June 1970 passed by the State Government whereby the Registrar of Co-operative Societies was directed to grant permission to register a primary land mortgage bank for the Shertallai Taluk as had been applied for by the convener of the Shertallai Taluk Land Mortgage Bank Promotion Committee. A copy of the impugned order has been produced as an annexure Ext. R-1 attached to the counter-affidavit filed on behalf of the State of Kerala.

2. The petitioner society has been conducting its activities in the Shertallai taluk also and had included the said area as part of the area of its opera-tion in its bye-laws. At that time there was no separate co-operative land mortgage bank functioning in Shertallai taluk. A committee appears to have been constituted by the residents of the Shertallai taluk with the 3rd respondent as its convener for the purpose of organising a separate land mortgage bank for Shertallai taluk and getting it registered under the Kerala Co-operative Societies Act, 1969 (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The 3rd respondent applied to the Registrar for sanction under S.6 of the Act for the registration of the pro-posed society. That application was rejected by the Registrar by an order passed on 11th May 1970 on the ground that the Bank if formed cannot work as a viable unit. An appeal was thereupon filed by the 3rd respondent before the State Government under S.83 (1) of the Act challenging the said order passed by the Registrar and it is on that appeal that the State Government has passed the impugned proceedings evidenced by Ext. R-1. The Government after exa-mining the relevant aspects has taken the view that the establishment of a primary land mortgage bank in Shertallai taluk which is a very backward area, would help the people of the locality by providing adequate funds for the improvement of their land and cultivation and that such a step would be consistent with the all India policy to have the primary land mortgage bank established at taluk level. It was also found by the Government that there was no valid ground whatever for regarding the proposal to establish the new society in Shertallai as objectionable from any relevant view-point.

3. The contention put forward by the petitioner society is that the order Ext. R-1 ought not to have been passed by the State Government behind its back and that the principles of natural justice have been violated in passing such an order without affording a hearing to the petitioner society. In support of this contention it was pointed out that the Shertallai taluk is a part of the area of operation of the petitioner society as per its bye-laws which had been duly approved by the Registrar and that as a result of the direction given by the Government to register a separate society of like kind in Shertallai taluk, there will be a pro tanto curtailment of the field where the petitioner society has a right to operate and that such a step necessarily visits the petitioner with adverse civil consequences. I do not find it possible to accept this contention. It may be that at the time when the petitioner society was registered it had framed its bye-laws by including the Taluk of Shertallai also within the area of its operation since at that time there was no similar society functioning in Shertallai. Neither by reason of the inclusion of any particular locality as part of the area of operation of a society in the relevant clause in its bye-laws nor on account of the approval of such bye-law by the competent authority under the Act can it be said that a vested right of monopolistic banking activity has accrued to a parti-cular society, so as to preclude the Registrar or the State Government from subsequently granting registration to another society to ope