JUDGMENT :

Bechu Kurian Thomas, J.

Rejection of nomination of the appellant on the ground that he was a defaulter to the society and hence acquired disqualification under Rule 44(1)(c)(i) of the Kerala Cooperative Societies Rules, 1969 (the ‘Rules’ for brevity) was impugned in the writ petition. Challenge against the said rejection did not find favour with the learned Single judge and the writ petition was dismissed. Aggrieved, appellant seeks our intervention.

2. Sri. Arjun Raghavan and Sri. T.R. Harikumar, learned counsel for the appellant, contended that the appellant was only a surety in respect of 3 loans taken by his immediate family member on 17-10-2018, which were repayable only within 5 years. However, in order to disqualify the appellant, the administrative committee of the Society filed three arbitration cases in which awards were passed on 29-11-2019, copies of which were produced in the writ petition as Exts.P2, P3 and P4. Learned counsel also contended that immediately on obtaining copies of the awards, respective appeals were filed before the Kerala Co-operative Tribunal under Section 82 of the Kerala Cooperative Societies Act, 1969 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Act’