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1981 Supreme(Ori) 63
High Court Of Orissa
RANGANATH MISRA, J. K. MOHANTY
KAPILENDRA POTHAL - Appellant
Versus
REGISTRAR, CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES - Respondent
Original Jurn. Case 844 Of 1981
Decided On : 07/29/1981
G.RATH, S.Mishra
An appeal lies against an order touching the election of members of the committee of any society under Section 109 (1) (e-1) of the Orissa Co-operative Societies Act, 1962.
Headnote:
ELECTION DISPUTE - APPEAL AGAINST REJECTION OF NOMINATION - MAINTAINABILITY - ELECTION PROCESS - CONTINUATION FROM SCRUTINY STAGE - VALIDITY - DISPUTE UNDER SECTION 68 OF THE ORISSA CO-OPERATIVE SOCIETIES ACT, 1962 - LIMITATION - CONDONATION.
Fact of the Case:
Petitioner and opposite party No. 3 were the only two candidates for the election of a Director of the Balasore District Co-operative Central Bank Limited. The nomination of opposite party No. 3 was rejected by the Election Officer, and petitioner was declared elected as the only remaining candidate. Opposite party No. 3 appealed the rejection of his nomination to the Registrar, who allowed the appeal and directed a fresh election. The Election Officer continued the election process from the stage of scrutiny of nominations, and opposite party No. 3 was elected. Petitioner filed a writ petition challenging the election of opposite party No. 3.
Finding of the Court:
The court held that the appeal filed by opposite party No. 3 against the rejection of his nomination was maintainable under Section 109 (1) (e-1) of the Orissa Co-operative Societies Act, 1962. The court also held that the Election Officer could not continue the election process from the stage of scrutiny of nominations, but that this issue should be raised in a dispute under Section 68 of the Act. The court further held that the petitioner could apply to the authority before whom the dispute is raised to condone the delay in raising the dispute, and that the authority should liberally deal with this aspect and allow the dispute to be raised.
Issues: 1. Whether the appeal filed by opposite party No. 3 against the rejection of his nomination was maintainable? 2. Whether the Election Officer could continue the election process from the stage of scrutiny of nominations? 3. Whether the petitioner could challenge the election of opposite party No. 3 by way of a dispute under Section 68 of the Act?
Ratio Decidendi: 1. Section 109 (1) (e-1) of the Orissa Co-operative Societies Act, 1962 provides for an appeal against an order touching the election of members of the committee of any society. An order rejecting a nomination is an order touching the election. Therefore, the appeal filed by opposite party No. 3 was maintainable. 2. There is no provision in the Act or the Rules made thereunder as to how a situation where the election process has not begun from the inception is to be dealt with. The appellate order also did not indicate from what stage the electoral process was to commence. Therefore, the Election Officer could not continue the process for the stage of scrutiny. 3. Section 68 of the Act provides for raising a dispute against the election. The petitioner could challenge the election of opposite party No. 3 by way of a dispute under Section 68 of the Act.
Final Decision: The writ petition was disposed of without any direction for costs. The court observed that the petitioner would do well to raise a dispute quickly and apply to the authority before whom the dispute is raised to condone the delay on the ground that the matter was pending before the court in a writ application instituted within the period of limitation.
MISRA, C. J.
( 1 ) THIS application under Article 226 of the constitution calls in question the election of opposite party no. 3 as a Director of the Balasore District Co-operative central Bank Limited (hereinafter referred to as the Bank)on 18-4-1981.
( 2 ) THE Bank consists of 12 Zones out of which th nilgiri-Oupada Zone is one and it also happened to be a constituency for electing a Director for the Board of the Bank. The said zone has 12 co-opera'ive societies and from among the 12 representatives each representing one society out of these 12, a Director had to be elected. The Deputy Registrar of co-operative Societies, Balasoer Division (opposite party No. 1), issued notice under Section 28 of the Orissa Co-operative societies Act (hereinafter referred to as the 'act for holding election to the Board of Directors of the Bank in a General Body meeting of the Bank which was scheduled to be held on 20-7-1980 for the said purpose. An election programme was published as per Annexure-1. Only two representative out of the 12 relatirg 10 the relevant zone-petitioner and opposite party No. 3-filed their nomination for the election to be held on the 20th of July, 1980. The nomination of opposite party No j was rejected by the Deputv Registrar who was also the Election Officer by. order dated 16th July 1980, and since petitioner was the only remaining candidate he was noticed to have been elected from the constituency as an uncontested director. Against the order of rejection of his nomination, opposite party No. 3 filed an appeal being Appeal Case No. 6 of 1980 before the Registrar (opposite party No. 2), By airier dated 1 -9-1980 the Registrar allowed the appeal and set aside the order of the Election Officer rejecting the nomination of, opposite party No. 3 vide Annexure-2. The appellate authority directed : ''. . . . . . . . . . . This being so, his decision on the legality or otherwise of the second meeting and of the resulutions passed at the second meeting amonts to an exericise of jurisdiction which he really did not possess under the low. In view of the above his order dated 16-7-1980 is hereby set aside. " in terms of the appellate order, the Dy. Registrar (opposite party No. I) gave the following notice : "notice No. 1720/dated 23-3-1981. IEIII-Dk 2/80 In continuation of his office Notice No. 678 dated 5-2-1981, which was published in the daily Oriya Newspaper (Matrubhumi) on 13-2-1981, the programme of election of members to the Committee of Management of Balasore District co-operative Central Bank Ltd. from Nilgiri-Oupada Constitu-tency which is scheduled to be held on 18-4-1981 at 2 p. m. in the permises of Balasore District Co-operative Central Bank ltd. is given below. All the members of Nilgiri Oupada constituency are requested to attend and particape in the election General Body Meeting according to the programme. Sd, 23-3-1981, deputy Registrar, co-operative Societies, Balasore, division, Balasore Cum Election officer, Balasore District co-operative Central Bank Limited. Programme of election of member to the Board of Management , of Balasore District Co-operative Central Bank Ltd. from nijgiri-Oupada Constitutency on 18-4-1981 at 2 p. m. (See below chart of programme)AS would appear from Annexure-8, election being held, opposite party No. 3 received 7 while petition received. Petitioner has contended that the appeel to the Registrar was not maintainable- the election of the petitioner having not been set aside, a fresh elelction could not be held at any rate, when the Election Officer proceeded to give effect to the appellate order for holding of the election, in the absence of any provision that the election process could be condueted from the stage cf scrutinizing nominations, the entire gammeck should have been repeated from the beginning of the election process.
( 3 ) OPPOSITE party No. 3 alone has filed a counter-affidavit wherein inter alia it has been contended that Sec. 68 of the Act provides for raisi
