Validity of association's registration and membership status of the appellants.

B. RAJENDRAN, J

1. These three Original Side appeals are filed by the defendants/appellants against the common order dated 27.04.2011 passed by the learned single Judge in Application Nos. 8, 9 and 10 of 2011 in C.S. No. 1 of 2011.

2. The suit in C.S. No. 1 of 2011 was filed by The Chemists and Druggist Association, hereinafter referred to as 'Association' praying for (i) a permanent injunction restraining the defendants, their men, agents, servants, representatives from in any way interfering with the day to day affairs of the association (ii) for permanent injunction restraining the defendants, their men, agents, servants, representatives from in any way claiming to be representative of the plaintiff association to any of the members of the association or the general public or the District, State and National body (iii) For permanent injunction restraining the defendants, their men, agents, servants, representatives from in any way using the plaintiff associations' letter head, by claiming himself to be the Chairman of the action committee.

3. Pending suit, the association has filed three applications namely Original Application Nos. 8 to 10 of 2011. O.A. No. 8 of 2011 has been filed by the Association for grant of an ad-interim injunction restraining the defendants, their men, agents, servants, representatives from in any way claiming to be representative of the plaintiff association to any of the members of the Association or the general public or the District, State and national body pending disposal of the suit.

4. O.A. No. 9 of 2011 has been filed for grant of an ad-interim injunction restraining the defendants, their men, agents, servants, representatives from in any way using the plaintiff association's letter head, by claiming himself to be the Chairman of the Action Committee pending disposal of the suit.

5. O.A. No. 10 of 2011 has been filed praying for grant of an ad-interim injunction restraining the defendants, their men, agents, servants, representatives from in any way interfering with the day to day affairs of the association pending disposal of the suit.

6. All these three applications were taken up together and by a common order dated 27.04.2011, the learned single Judge, after hearing both sides, granted an order of interim injunction as prayed for in the three applications. Aggrieved by the same, the present Original Side Appeals have been filed by the defendants/appellants.

7. According to the defendants/appellants, they are members of the plaintiff association. The suit, as filed by the association against them, is not maintainable in view of the fact that the association is not a registered association and it is an unregistered society. Therefore, the association cannot sue the office bearers, being the defendants/appellants, in their individual capacity. According to the defendants/appellants, the suit itself had been filed to stiffle the protest made by them against the misdeeds of one Arul Kumar, General Secretary of the Tamil Nadu Chemist and Allied Distributors Alliance Limited. The association is of course affiliated to Tamil Nadu Chemist and Allied Distributors Alliance Limited. The said Arul Kumar misappropriated funds of the Association for incorporating a company by misusing his official position and also issued Circulars to manufacturers of drugs, which was condemned by the Monopoly and Restrictive Trade Practices Commission by its order dated 02.09.2005. The said Arul Kumar, General Secretary of the Association, by misusing his official position has devised plans to throw the defendants/ appellants out of the association with the help of the executive committee members. In fact, action was contemplated against the erring officials at the instance of the defendants/appellants, but even before that they were removed by the executive committee, followed by the general body meeting, after filing the suit. According to the defendants/appellants, they were not expelled from the associati