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IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA
[DIVISION BENCH]
Before
The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Hemant Gupta
The Hon’ble Mr. Justice Rajiv Narain Raina
LPA No.1162 of 2011 (O&M)
Madan Gopal & Ors.
v.
Union Territory, Chandigarh & Ors.
{Decided on 11/01/2013}
(A) Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961, S.55--Allotment of Flat--To original non-allottee members--Surrender of Membership--Erstwhile expelled members can raise grievance only in respect of their expulsion, but not in respect of members, who have surrendered their membership--The right of members, who have surrendered their membership is personal in nature and cannot be espoused by proxy. (Para 36)
(B) Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961, S.55--Restoration of Membership--Members who have surrendered their member and even accepted refund of amount deposited by them cannot be permitted to claim restoration of membership when no assertive action was taken by them to dispute surrender of membership--Restoration cannot be claimed on strength of proceedings recorded by the Administrator which were against the report of Enquiry officer even though--Such report was accepted by Administration and Registrar Cooperative Societies.
(C) Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961, S.55--Allotment of flat--To original non-allottee members--The rights of the existing non allottee members, arise on the day, when the members have surrendered their membership--Initially the Administration determined 292 as eligible members, which included 141 as the non allottee members for future allotment--Since the Society stands bifurcated amongst the allottee and non-allottee members, therefore, the Society of the allottee members is to ensure that the remaining flats are offered for allotment to non allottee members in the first instance and not to substituted members in place of original members who had surrendered their membership--Chandigarh Allotment of Land to Cooperative House Building Societies Scheme, 1991. (Para 39)
Mr. Hemant Gupta, J.: - This order shall dispose of LPA No.1162 of 2011 as well as four other writ petitions i.e. CWP Nos.11652 of 2009; 19749 of 2011; 19805 of 2011 & 285 of 2012 raising similar issues pertaining to the membership of Pink Rose Co-operative House Building Society Ltd. (for short ‘the Society’). Since the issues are common, the same are taken up for hearing together.
2. Challenge in LPA No.1162 of 2011 is to an order passed by the learned Single Bench of this Court on 06.07.2011, whereby the writ petition impugning an order dated 13.05.2011 passed by the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, removing the Managing Committee of the Society and appointing an Administrator was dismissed for the reason that the appellants have effective alternative remedy of appeal against the order impugned in the writ petition.
3. CWP No.11652 of 2009 is preferred by one Balbir Singh, one of the original allottees of the Society, aggrieved against the orders dated 07.04.2009 and 10.07.2009 passed by the Joint Registrar, Cooperative Societies and by the Secretary, Cooperative Societies, Chandigarh Administration, declining reference raising dispute by the petitioner against the restoration of membership of 26 surrendered members.
4. In CWP No.19749 of 2011, challenge is to an order passed by the Registrar, Cooperative Societies on 13.09.2011 by Arun Aggarwal and five others, the substituted members, whereby membership of Mrs. Suman Mahajan was ordered to be restored after accepting the report of the Enquiry Officer, who was appointed to go into the allegations levelled against the Society including that of removal/expulsion of members in a petition filed by some of the appellants in LPA No.1162 of 2011.
5. Challenge in other two writ petitions i.e. CWP No.19805 of 2011 and CWP No.285 of 2012 is to the election notice dated 08.10.2011, whereby names of 26 surrendered members were included in the voters list for the election process. The writ petitioners were substituted as members vide resolution dated 01.10.2007 after the earlier substitution of 26 members vide resolution dated 24.04.2003 was set aside. However, in CWP No.19805 of 2011, all the 26 original allottee members are the respondents, whereas in CWP No.285 of 2012, S.S.Dhingra – an original allottee, who has admittedly surrendered his membership, is the sole private respondent.
6. Though the impugned order in appeal is appealable, but the fact remains that numerous writ petitions are pending before this Court wherein the issue of membership arises for consideration. Therefore, we consider it appropriate to decide the questions relating to the membership of the Society vide the present order itself. In fact, the learned counsel for the parties sought early decision on the question of membership of many persons, as some of them have deposited substantial amounts to the Society. The said question arises out of the following facts:
7. The Chandigarh Administration promulgated a scheme for allotment of land to the Co-operative House Building Societies in Union Territory, Chandigarh called as ‘Chandigarh Allotment of Land to Cooperative House Building Societies Scheme, 1991’ (for short ‘the Scheme’). The Scheme contemplated allotment of land for the construction of multi-storey dwelling units to the Co-operative Societies. The members of the Society were, inter alia, required to be bona-fide residents of the Union Territory of Chandigarh at least for last two years on the date of the allotment of land to the Society; employees of the Central Government/Corporation owned or controlled by Central Government stationed at Chandigarh on the date of notification of Scheme or have served in the past at Chandigarh; or the employees of Union Territory Administration or the States of Punjab and Haryana or any Corporation owned or controlled by Union Territory and are either serving at Chandigarh on the date of notification of the Scheme or have served in the past.
8. The Society was
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