The court ruled that preliminary enquiries under the Rajasthan Co-operative Societies Act are administrative and do not constitute final decisions, allowing for interim orders to be vacated.

ORDER :

1. The matter comes up on an application under Article 226(3) of the Constitution of India for vacation of the interim order dated 03.11.2022 whereby the proceedings before the Registrar in pursuance to the notices dated 30.05.2022 (Annexure-5) and 22.07.2022 (Annexure-7) had been stayed.

2. The present writ petition has been preferred by the petitioner with the following submissions:

(i) Order dated 30.05.2022 (Annexure-5) was issued by respondent No. 3 Institutional Development Officer (IDO) under Section 55 of the Rajasthan Co-operative Societies Act, 2001 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act of 2001') whereby an Enquiry Officer was appointed to enquire into the allegations as made vide complaints by the Presidents of various Primary Milk Samitis against the Chairman and other members of the Managing Board of Udaipur Dugdh Utpadak Sahakari Sangh Limited and certain other Boards/Samiti. The said order specified two points for enquiry.

Vide amended order dated 03.06.2022, third point for enquiry was also added vide which it was specified that if during the enquiry proceedings any other point for enquiry is found, the same would also be included.

(ii) The enquiry in terms of Section 55(1) was conducted by the Enquiry Officer and in terms of the enquiry report dated 17.06.2022 submitted by him, the result of the enquiry was declared on 05.07.2022. As per the said result, certain officials/members of the Management Board were prima facie found guilty. Therefore, in terms of Section 57(1) of the Act of 2001, notice dated 22.07.2022 was served on all 42 members, specifying the details of the allegation/charge as levelled against them and calling upon them to appear on 08.08.2022 along with the reply and supporting documents, if any.

So far as the present petitioner is concerned, he was alleged to have received bonus/ex gratia/ incentive/memento/gift amounts dehors the Rules. The amount qua said illegally received gifts/incentive was quantified to be Rs. 1,07,972/-.

(iii) The petitioner submitted a detailed reply to notice dated 22.07.2022 on 16.08.2022. However, without considering the objections raised by him in the reply, the Enquiry Officer as appointed in terms of Section 57(1) of the Act of 2001, submitted his Enquiry Report dated 17.08.2022 whereby the petitioner was found guilty of receiving the above mentioned amount/gifts/mementos dehors the Rules. In terms of said Enquiry Report, the Enquiry Officer(Additional Registrar, Co- operative Societies, Jaipur) recommended for action in terms of Section 57(2) read with Rule 76(2) of the Rajasthan Co-operative Societies Rules, 2003 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Rules of 2003').

In pursuance thereof, notice dated 29.08.2022 was served calling upon all the 42 incumbents, including the petitioner, to appear on 16.09.2022 and to submit their defence on the said date. It is against the said notice dated 29.08.2022 (Annexure-11) and all the prior notices that the present writ petition has been preferred.

3. Vide interim order dated 03.11.2022, the proceedings before the Registrar in pursuance to the notice dated 30.05.2022 (Annexure-5) and notice dated 22.07.2022 (Anneuxre-7) were stayed and an application for vacation of the said interim order has been preferred on behalf of the respondents. Learned Advocate General made the following submissions:

(a) The present writ petition itself is not maintainable in view of the alternative remedy of revision under Section 107 of the Act of 2001. Section 107 not only provides for a revision against an order passed by any officer subordinate to the Registrar/Registrar but also empowers the Registrar/State Government to pass an interlocutory order. Therefore, the interim order if any, can even be granted by the State Government/Registrar under Section 107 and hence it cannot be said that the said remedy is not effective or efficacious one.

(b) Vide the interim order the proceedings in pursuance to notices dated 30.05.2022 and 22.07.2022 have been