The importance of complying with statutory requirements for general body meetings, the ministerial nature of the District Registrar's duty in accepting Form-VII, and the appropriateness of resorting to a civil suit in such disputes.

ORDER :

(Prayer : Writ Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, praying this Court to issue a Writ of Certiorarified Mandamus, to call for the records in 5187/E1/2021, dated 28.06.2022 on the file of the second respondent and quash the same and direct the second respondent to accept Form-7 filed by the petitioner for the general council meeting dated 31.08.2021.)

The subject matter concerns the affairs of a registered society by name Tirunelveli Dakshina Mara Nadar Sangam. The writ petition has been filed by Thiru.R.Shanmugavel Nadar claiming to be its Secretary. According to him, notification dated 09.08.2021 calling for general body meeting to be held on 31.08.2021 at 11.00 a.m., at Dr.P.Sivandhi, Adhithanar Auditorium located at South Kallikulam, Tirunelveli Dakshina Mara Nadar Sangam College was published in 'Daily Thanthi' on 10.08.2021. The meeting was held as scheduled. The petitioner was elected as Secretary. Form-VII was submitted before the second respondent. Instead of filing the same, the second respondent chose to accept the Form-VII submitted by a rival group. According to the rival group, a General Body Meeting was convened on 04.05.2022 and a new set of office bearers was chosen. The impugned order dated 28.06.2022 issued by the second respondent is to that effect. Challenging the same, the present writ petition has been filed.

2. The official respondents as well as the contesting private respondents have filed counter affidavits.

3. According to them, the meeting held on 31.08.2021 was not legal because 21 days clear notice was not given. That is why, the District Registrar (Admin), Tirunelveli rightly did not take the same on file. In these circumstances, requisition was given by 316 life members of the society calling upon the President for convening a Special General Body Meeting. This requisition was given on 25.01.2022. But no such meeting was convened within a period of 30 days. Therefore, the requisitionists issued publication in Dhinathanti Daily on 12.04.2022 for conducting Special General Body Meeting on 04.05.2022. On the said date, the meeting was held. A retired District Judge acted as Election Officer. 3230 members were present in the said meeting. One R.K.Kalithasan Nadar, T.Rajakumar Nadar, A.Selvaraj Nadar, Anitha R.Sivanantha Nadar and V.P.Ramanathan Nadar were elected as President, Secretary, Treasurer, Vice President and Deputy Secretary respectively. That apart, 38 Executive Members were also elected. Quorum for such meetings shall be 1500 and in this case, quorum was more than satisfied. Form-VII was submitted. After noticing that all the procedural formalities were complied with, Form-VII submitted by the newly elected office bearers was taken on file. It is not as if this was done arbitrarily. The writ petitioner was duly enquired. All the relevant documents were perused. Only after satisfying herself fully, the second respondent rejected the earlier Form-VII and accepted the new Form- VII. If the petitioner wants to question the action taken by the second respondent, he has to necessarily move the jurisdictional civil Court. Filing writ petition is not appropriate. The respondents pressed for dismissal of the writ petition.

4. The learned Senior Counsel appearing for the writ petitioner reiterated all the contentions set out in the affidavit filed in support of the writ petition. She asserted that 21 days notice was in-fact given. The notification was issued on 09.08.2021. The publication was made on 10.08.2021 and the meeting was held on 31.08.2021. According to the learned Senior Counsel, this more than satisfied the statutory requirement. The learned senior counsel faulted the second respondent for not having acted on the petitioner's application. When the writ petitioner submitted his Form-VII, there was no rival Form-VII. Since Form-VII submitted by the writ petitioner is earlier in point of time, it ought to have been accepted. If according to the second responde