Registration under the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act is unnecessary for entities already registered under a different law; non-registration does not result in criminal liability or justify magistrate cognizance.

ORDER :

M. DHANDAPANI, J.

1. The cognizance of the alleged offence taken by the learned Judicial Magistrate No.IV, culminating in the case in C.C. No.113/2023 by order dated 27.01.2023 in Crl. M.P. No.1973/2022 is put in issue before this Court by filing the present revision petitions.

2. The facts leading to the filing of the present revision petitions, in a nutshell, are as under :-

The petitioner is the President of the society under the name and style of Salem Central Rotary Club, a registered society as per the Tamil Nadu Societies Registration Act, 1975 (for short ‘the Act’). It is the case of the complainant in the petition filed u/s 200 Cr.P.C. that the accused persons 2 to 26, as shown in the complaint are the members and administrators of various Rotary Clubs within the District of Salem and the said clubs are unregistered. In this regard, the defacto complainant addressed the Deputy Registrar to call upon the said clubs to register themselves under the act for which no action had been taken by the District Registrar and, hence the present private complaint was filed by the complainant.

3. Based on the said complaint, the court below ordered for enquiry u/s202 Cr.P.C. and in the absence of the report of the Station House Officer, inspite of repeated adjournments, after hearing the complainant, who appeared as party-in-person and after perusal of the records, found that the accused 2 to 26 were not registered under the Act and further inspite of the directions of the 1^st respondent therein calling upon the respondents 2 to 26 therein to pay as the said societies were running for more than 45 years without registration and as no action had been taken to collect the fine and no steps also having not been taken by the 1^st respondent therein on the complaint given by the complainant, held that a prima facie case had been made out for taking cognizance against the respondents therein and, accordingly, took cognizance against the 1^st and 2^nd respondents therein u/s 119, 166 and 166A of IPC and u/s 420 IPC against respondents 5 to 26 therein. Aggrieved by the said order, the present revision has been preferred by the respective petitioners.

4. Learned senior counsel, leading the arguments on behalf of the petitioners submitted that the allegations raised by the complainant are false and fabricated as the registration of the complainant association is “Salem Central Rotary Club” while that of the petitioner is “Rotary Club of Salem Central”. It is therefore the submission of the learned counsel that without even looking into the name, the private complaint has been filed which is only in vested interest.

5. It is the further submission of the learned senior counsel that international organisations need not register their branches under the local law and the petitioner being a branch of a global continent organisation, it need not be registered, however, without appreciating the above, the court below has erroneously took cognizance of the complaint, which deserves to be quashed.

6. It is the further submission of the learned senior counsel that the petitioner and the other accused persons had not committed any fraud or cheating activities u/s 420 IPC and t