Point of Law – The Scheme of the Act, 1950 would manifest that the Act, 1950 is intended to curb the menace of exploitation of citizens by naming commercial entities in such a manner that the general public would be led to believe that a private commercial entity is one which has the official patronage of the Central or State Government.

JUDGMENT :

The petitioners are the President, Vice President and General Secretary of an unregistered Association formed for the purpose of promoting Cricket among the Deaf youth in Kerala. The petitioners are aggrieved by the refusal of the respondents to register the Association in the name “Kerala Deaf Cricket Association”.

2. The petitioners state that their main objectives are to promote, encourage, organise and control the game Cricket in Kerala. Ext.P1 is the Memorandum of Association of the Kerala Deaf Cricket Association and Ext.P2, the Rules and Regulations. As the non-registration of the Association caused difficulties in sending Teams to Inter-State and National Level Competitions, the petitioners decided to register the Association in the name “Kerala Deaf Cricket Association”. The petitioners submitted an application to register the Association under the Societies Registration Act, 1860.

3. The petitioners state that the 2nd respondent-District Registrar (General) is not accepting the application submitted by them. The 2nd respondent is under a mistaken belief that the terms “Kerala” or “India” cannot be used for registration of any Association. The petitioners found it very difficult to make its sponsored Team participate in the 5th T-20 National Cricket Championship for Deaf, organised by the Indian Deaf Cricket Association at Hyderabad, which was held from 12th to 18th December, 2021.

4. According to the petitioners, no law of the land precludes the petitioners from adding the term “Kerala” to the name of an Association. The petitioners have a fundamental right to form an Association under Article 19 of the Constitution of India. The respondents are therefore compellable to register the Association in its name “Kerala Deaf Cricket Association”, contends the petitioners.

5. The 2nd respondent-District Registrar resisted the writ petition. The 2nd respondent submitted that as there is no provision to register a society bearing the word “Kerala” as per Section 2(a), 3 and as per Schedule No.4 of The Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act of 1950, the District Registrar (General) advised them to rename the society avoiding such prohibited names as it resembles the State Government. There is no provision to name a non-Governmental Organisation with a name of any State or Nation as the same may be misunderstood or interpreted as a Governmental Organisation.

6. The petitioners did not submit any application to the 2nd respondent as the petitioners argue in the writ petition. The petitioners have only prepared a bye-law of the society and brought it for verification at the office. The submission of application for the registration of any society under the Society Registration Act XXI of 1860 is through online by the software named “egroops”. There is no facility for manual submission or registration and the petitioners' argument that they have submitted an application for registration of the said society under the said Act on 28.04.2021 is quite baseless. The Registrar has intimated them later that the said Association cannot be registered with the name “Kerala Deaf Cricket Association”, as it is against the provisions of the Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act of 1950 and the petitioners were advised to rename the Association by omitting the word “Kerala”.

7. The Emblems and Names (Prevention of Improper Use) Act of 1950 clearly states about the emblems and names which are not permitted to use by non-Governmental agencies or Organisations. Section 3 of the said Act says notwithstanding anything contained in any law for the time being in force, no person shall, except in such cases and under such conditions as may be prescribed by the Central Government, use or continue to use, for the purpose of any trade, business, calling or profession, or in the title of any patent, or in any trade mark or design, any name or emblem specified in the Schedule or any colourable imitation thereof without the previ