1989 Supreme(Raj) 41
Rajasthan High Court, Jaipur Bench
M.B. Sharma & I.S. Israni, JJ.
Ajit Kumar - Appellant
Versus
State of Rajasthan - Respondents
D.B. Civil Writ Petition No. 1809 of 1987
Decided On : January 25, 1989
B.L. Sharma & Ashok Mishra, for Petitioners; M.I. Khan, Additional Advocate General
Headnote:Rajasthan Co-operative Socities Act, 1965, Sec. 30 and Rajasthan Co-operative socities Rules, 1966, Rule. 26—When the general meeting has been called for Election of the members of the Board of Directors of the Society and date for poll is fixed—All steps except the polling which had been stayed by the court-On getting the stay order vacated the thread should be taken from the stage which existed at the time of passing of stay order—There is a clear bar for admission of members within 30 days prior to the date of genral meeting. Writ Petition allowed.
2. First the facts in order to understand the question framed by us. The elections of members of Board of Directors and office bearers of Ajmer Central Co-operative Bank Ltd. Ajmer, respondent No. 4, were to take place. The Joint Registrar, Co-operative Societies Ajmer Zone, Ajmer (for short, the Joint Regis-trar) appointed Shri R.K. Singh as Election Officer to hold the elections of members of the Board of Directors and office bearers of the aforesaid Bank. The said Election Officer issued a notice dated May 11, 1987 giving the election programme which is as under;
a) Publication of provisional voters list inviting objection thereto. 12.5.1987
b) Hearing of objections 19.5.1987
c) Publication of final voters list 20.5.1987
d) Receipt of nomination papers 21.5.1987
e) Scruitiny of nomination papers 22.5.1987
f) Withdrawal of nomination papers and publication of the final list of contesting candidates 23.5.1987
g) Poll if necessary 1.6.1987
h) Election of office bearers 2.6.1987
The above election programme is contained in Annr. 1 of the writ petition. The aforesaid Election Officer published a final list of contesting candidates on May 23, 1987 (Annr. 2). It will be clear from the aforesaid election programme that June 1, 1987 was fixed as the date of annual general meeting and poll, if necessary. It appears that before the aforesaid date i.e. June 1, 1987, a writ petition was filed and this court on May 28, 1987 had stayed the poll fixed for June 1, 1987. Later on that writ petition was dismissed as withdrawn on June 1, 1987, but prior to it after receipt of the stay order of this Court, the Election Officer had adjourned the general meeting which was called for June 1, 1987. When the final voters list was published on May 28,1987, it contained the names of as many as 161 members so far as the election of two Directors to be elected from amongst the delegates of member Co-operative Societies other than Agricultural Credit Co-operative Societies and Krya Vikrya Sahakari Samitis, is concerned, out of which one seat is reserved for a delegate of weaker section. But from or after June, 1987 till July 10 1987, as many as 51 more members further became eligible to participate in the elections. After enrolment of the above-numbered members, another calender for election was issued on July 17, 1987 (Annr. 4). In the aforesaid programme, July 28, 1987, was fixed as the date for publication of final voters list. It is not disputed that the said voters list contained not only 161 members who were there when the election programme was issued earlier, but included 51 more members. Thus, it contained total number of 212 members. The petitioner has come to this Court and has challenged Annr. 4.
3. The challenge is basically on the ground that once the election process