In the absence of an express provision in the relevant Acts, Rules, and Bye-laws, the members of the Managing Committee/Directors of a Co-operative Bank do not have the inherent power to remove office-bearers through a no-confidence motion.

R.S.MONGIA and J JJ.

1. While admitting this petition, the Motion Bench desired that this case be decided by constituting a larger Bench, as the view expressed by a Division Bench of this Court in Haji Anwar Ahmad Khan V/s. The Punjab Wakf Board, AIR 1980 Pun and Har 306, required reconsideration. Later on, another petition - C.W.P. No. 2443 of 1989- Rajwinder Singh V/s. Registrar, Co-operative Societies, was also admitted and was ordered to be heard with this writ petition (C.W.P. No. 6009 of 1987), as the same law point arose for determination in this case also. The former case, i.e. C.W.P. No. 6009 of 1987 is under the Harayana Co-operative Societies Act; whereas the latter case, i.e. C.W.P. No. 2443 of 1989 is under the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act.

2. The question of law that requires determination is whether in the absence of any provision in the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act, 1961 , Rules and the Bye-laws made thereunder (as also under the Haryana Co-operative Societies Act, 1984, Rules and the Bye-laws made thereunder) for moving a motion of no-confidence in a President of a Managing Committee of a Co-operative Society/Chairman of a Board of Direitors of a Co-operative Bank, is it permissible to move such a motion on the assumption that there is such an implied power.

3. At the outset it may be observed that a similar matter came up for consideration before a Division Bench of this Court in Haji Anwar Ahmed Khanands case (AIR 1980 Pun and Har 306) (supra) which was a case under the Punjab Wakf Act, 1954, wherein it was held that a Chairman of the Wakf Board could be removed by the members of the Board by passing a vote of no confidence, though there was no specific power under the Wakf Act or the Rules made thereunder for the removal of a Chairman by passing a motion of no confidence by the members of the Wakf Board. As stated in the opening paragraph, a later Division Bench doubted the correctness of the law laid down in Haji Anwar Ahmed Khanands case (AIR 1980 Pun and Har 306) (supra) and referred the matter to a larger Bench for reconsideration of the correctness of the said case.

4. It is not necessary to state the facts of these two cases in any detail. Suffice it to mention that in C.W.P. No. 6009 of 1987, petitioner Jagdev Singh was elected as a Director of the Board of Directors of the Rohtak Central Co-operative Bank Limited (hereinafter called thhe Bank) on 8/04/1985, under the provisions of the Haryana co-operative Societies Act, 1984 (hereinafter called the Haryana Act) and the Rules made thereunder. Thereafter, the petitioner was also elected as a Chairman of the Board of Directors on 6/06/1985. Under S.28(4) of the Haryana Act, the Board of Directors of a Co-operative Bank / Managing Committee of a Co-operative Society, holds office for a period of three years from the date of the election, unless removed by the Registrar under the provisions of the Act, Rules and the Bye-laws of the Co-operative Society. The Managing Director of the Bank issued an agenda for the meeting of the Board of Directors fixed for 16/09/1987, item No. 1 whereof was to consider and decide the no-confidence motion moved by six Directors of the Bank against the Chairman of the Board of Directors i.e. the petitioner. Aggrieved by this, the petitioner had filed the present petition on the plea that there was no provision under the Haryana Act, Rules or the Bye-laws for moving or passing a andno-confidenceand motion against the office-bearers including the Chairman of the Board of Directors of the Bank.

5. Similar are the facts in the other case (C.W.P. No. 2443 of 1989) which is under the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act. Under S.26 of the Punjab Co-operative Societies Act, 1961 (hereinafter called the Punjab Act) the tenure of the office of the Managing Committee of a Co-operative Society/Board of Directors of a Co-operative Bank, has been fixed as three years. The election of Board of Directors in this case was hel