SupremeToday Landscape Ad
Back
Next
Judicial Analysis Court Copy Headnote Facts Arguments Court observation
Listen Article Pause Article
judgment-img

1993 Supreme(Ker) 562

High Court of Kerala
Mamidana Jagannadha Rao, K. Sreedharan, JJ.
Athickal Rajan - Appellant
Versus
Registrar Of Co Op Society & Ors - Respondent
W.A. No. 109 of 1993
Decided On : 21-01-1993

The main legal point established is that unauthorized actions, such as enrolment without sufficient share capital and permissive sanction without proper resolution, are deemed illegal and without jurisdiction.

Headnote:

Illegal Enrolment - Cooperative Society - Kerala Cooperative Societies Act - S.65 - R.9, R.16(2) - The judgment discusses the illegal enrolment of 4668 members in a cooperative society, the permissive sanction given by the Joint Registrar, and subsequent actions taken by the Managing Committee and Administrator. The court upholds the earlier judgment declaring the enrolment and permissive sanction as unauthorized and without jurisdiction.

Fact of the Case:

The society enrolled 4668 members without sufficient share capital. The Joint Registrar granted permissive sanction for amending the bye law after the enrolment. A Writ Petition was allowed, declaring the permissive sanction as illegal. Subsequently, the General Body passed a resolution to enhance the share capital and enrol new members. An Administrator was appointed, who passed an order declaring the enrolment and related actions as illegal.

Finding of the Court:

The court found that the enrolment and permissive sanction were unauthorized and without jurisdiction. The subsequent actions taken by the Managing Committee were also deemed illegal. The Administrator's order was upheld as valid and in implementation of the earlier judgment.

Issues: The issues revolved around the unauthorized enrolment of members, permissive sanction by the Joint Registrar, subsequent actions by the Managing Committee, and the validity of the Administrator's order.

Ratio Decidendi: The court upheld the earlier judgment declaring the enrolment and permissive sanction as unauthorized and without jurisdiction. It also emphasized the need for valid applications and resolutions in accordance with the rules.

Final Decision: The appeal was dismissed, and the court upheld the Administrator's order as valid.

JUDGMENT

M. Jagannadha Rao, C.J.

1. This appeal is preferred against the judgment of the learned Single Judge in O.P. No. 113 of 1993 dated 14-4-1993 dismissing the Writ Petition.

2. The impugned order is Ext. P4 dated 21-12-1992 is passed by the fourth respondent, Administrator, who has been appointed in respect of the Society subsequent to the expiry of the term of the Managing Committee as per the Ordinance dated 7-2-1992. The Ext. P4 order, in our opinion, is perfectly valid and is in implementation of the judgment of a learned Single Judge of this Court in Janardhanan v. Joint Registrar, 1990 (1) KLT 530, and therefore the petitioner cannot be permitted to question Ext. P4 order, which is merely consequential to the above judgment of this Court which has become final.

3. The society's share capital was Rs. 40 lakhs on 18-5-1987 and was fully paid-up. Therefore, there was no scope for enrolment of new members, unless the share-capital was increased. However, the than Managing Committee enrolled as many as 4668 members in one stroke on 1-7-1987 and issued share certificates to them, although there were no shares for allotment and the entire share capital of Rs. 40 lakhs had been paid up. However, the Joint Registrar of Cooperative-Societies, Kannur, passed an order subsequently on 27-7-1987 granting ' permissible sanction' for amendment of bye law 5 subject to the condition that the bye law shall be amended as per R.9 of the Rules framed under the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act within six months from the date of the said order. The Joint Registrar's sanction is after the enrolment of members. The enrolment was on 1-7-1987, while the permissive sanction for amending the bye law was on 27-7-1987. One Janardhanan complained to the Joint Registrar about the violation of the bye laws and unauthorised enrolment of new members by Petition dated 7-8-1987. To this petition, the Joint Registrar replied on 20-8-1987 stating that he had given permissive sanction to the Society to amend the bye laws for enhancing the share capital from Rs. 40 lakhs to Rs. 1 crore as per his proceedings dated 27-7-1987, and therefore he regretted his inability to do anything in the matter. Thereafter the said Janardhanan obtained a copy of the order of the Joint Registrar dated 27-7-1987 and challenged the same in the Writ Petition, O.P. No. 7502 of 1987. The said Writ Petition was allowed by Viswanatha Iyer, J. and the judgment is reported as Janardhanan v. Joint Registrar, 1990 (1) KLT 530. The learned Single Judge held that the permissive sanction given by the Joint Registrar was illegal, "and that it did not in any event amount to permission to ratify the enrolment of 4668 members on 1-7-1987, when there was no share-capital to be allotted. The learned Single Judge further declared that the Joint Registrar should not have permitted the amendment of the bye law without a resolution of the General Body of the Society, and that the action of the Joint Registrar was wholly unauthorised. It is therefore to be noticed that the learned Single Judge allowed the Writ Petition, and quashed the proceedings of the Joint Registrar dated 27-7-1987 giving permissive sanction even without resolution of the General Body for enhancing the share-capital and for amending the bye laws.

4. In our view, the effect of the said judgment is to declare the enrolment of 4668 members on 1-7-1987 as also the permissive sanction dated 27-7-1987 of the Joint Registrar as being wholly unauthorised and without jurisdiction.

5. It is subsequent to the above said judgment that the General Body held a Meeting on 3-4-1990 and passed a resolution to enhance the share capital and to enrol new members. In the resolution dated 3-4-1990, the Managing Committee resolved that the share amount of such members who are unauthorisedly enrolled earlier should be kept in the suspense account. In otherwords, the share amount of the said members was kept in the Suspense Account on 4-4-1990 and remained as





Click Here to Read the rest of this document
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
SupremeToday Portrait Ad
supreme today icon
whatsapp-icon Back to top