Disputes or doubts regarding the election or continuance in office of office-bearers of societies registered in Uttar Pradesh must be adjudicated exclusively by the Prescribed Authority under Section 25 of the Societies Registration Act, and the Assistant Registrar lacks jurisdiction to decide such disputes.

( 1 ) THIS petition is directed against the order dated 23-12-87 passed by the Asstt. Registrar. Firms Societies and Chits. Varanasi purporting to determine a dispute relating to the election or continuance in office of certain office-bearers of a Society called Bharat Dharm Mahamandal. The petitioners contend that the impugned order is completely void as the Assistant Registrar had no jurisdiction to decide the dispute himself in view of S. 25 of the Societies Registration Act as amended by the State Legislature. The order is also assailed on merits but we do not propose to comment on the same in view of the fact that we are upholding the objection of the petitioners as regards the jurisdiction or more appropriately the lack of it of the Assistant Registrar.

( 2 ) BHARAT Dharm Mahamandal is a Society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860. The society has been established for the purpose of promoting Hindu Religious Education in accordance with the Sanatan Dharma. The object disclosed in the memorandum of Association is to defuse the knowledge of Vedas. Puranas and other Hindu Shastras. The management of the Society and the control of its affairs are exercised by All India Pratinidhi Sabha (pratinidhi Sabha for short) which is the General Body of the Society. The office-bearers of the Pratinidhi Sabha are (i) President, (ii) Vice President; (iii) Chief Secretary; (iv) Joint Chief Secretary. On 25-10-86 the office-bearers of the Pratinidhi Sabha were elected for a term of three years. Sri Shiv Nandan Lal Dar was elected as the Chief Secretary and Sri Param Hans Misra as the Joint Chief Secretary. On 15-2-87 Sri Shiv Nandan Lal Dar submitted his resignation at a meeting of the Pratinidhi Sabha which was accepted and Sri Siva Ram Matre was asked to perform the function and duties of the Chief Secretary for the remaining term. The proceedings of the meeting of the Pratinidhi Sabha held on 15-2-87 are stated to have been revoked at a meeting held on 24-8-87 and at another meeting held on 13-9-87 Sri Dar was persuaded to withdraw his resignation and to continue on the post of the Chief Secretary as before. Sri Param Hans Misra the Chief Secretary, on the other hand, seems to have held a parallel meeting on 3-7-87 at which the resignation of Sri Dar was accepted and in his place he was himself alleged to have been elected as the Chief Secretary. A further decision to remove Sri Brij Mohan Dixit, the President of All India Council, the executive of the Society is also claimed to have taken at the same meeting.

( 3 ) THESE two parallel meetings and the decisions taken thereat regarding the continuance of Sri Shiv Nandan Lal Dar as the Chief Secretary and the alleged election of Sri Param Hans Misra at the meeting of the 3rd July, 1987 convened by him as the Chief Secretary led to disputes and differences between the parties. Both the groups, one represented by the petitioner and the other by Param Hans Misra the respondent 2 seem to have addressed letters to the Assistant Registrar each seeking legitimacy of the action taken by it and both disputing the claim of the other as regards the office of the Chief Secretary of the Pratinidhi Sabha. Upon these letters the impugned order has been passed.

( 4 ) BY the impugned order, the Assistant Registrar has disposed of two matters, one pertaining to certain amendments of the by-laws of the Society which he has disapproved on the ground that the same travelled beyond the objects of the Society and the other relating to the question whether Sri Dar had a right to continue as the Chief Secretary after the submission of his resignation and whether Sri Param Hans Misra was validly elected as the Chief Secretary of the Pratinidhi Sabha. The Assistant Registrar has held that the resignation of Sri Dar did not require acceptance and consequently he ceased to be the Chief Secretary after his resignation on 15-2-87. As regards Sri Param Hans Misra the finding is that as