Honble Dilip Gupta, J.—Sri Shankar Shiksha Prasar Samiti, Sirsani, district Auraiya (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Society’) and Sachi Kumari claiming herself to be its ad hoc Manager have filed this petition for quashing the order dated 24th June, 2008 passed by the Deputy Registrar, Firms Societies & Chits, Kanpur Division, Kanpur (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Deputy Registrar’) by which the annual list of office bearers of the Society for the period 2007-08 submitted by respondent No. 4 Sheo Prakash Dubey under Section 4 of the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as the ‘Act’) has been registered. The petitioners have also sought a direction upon the Deputy Registrar to register the amended bye-laws of the Society as well as to register the annual list of office bearers submitted by the petitioner-Society for the period 2007-08.

2. The Society was initially registered under the Act on 19th May, 1971 and the last renewal is valid upto 10th October, 2010. Under the bye-laws of the Society there are two types of members namely ordinary members and life members. The subscription fee of ordinary members is Rs. 11/- while that of life members is Rs. 251/-. A member is entitled to vote or become an office bearer only after six months from the date he is enrolled as a member. The term of an ordinary member is 1 year which can be renewed on payment of the requisite fee. Even the life members are required to get their membership renewed in the Annual Meeting of the Society but without payment of any fees. The Executive Body of the Society consists of a minimum of 15 members and its office bearers are elected from amongst these 15 members. The term of the Executive Body of the Society as well as the office bearers is five years.

3. The last election of the Executive Body of the Society was held on 20th June, 2006 in which Sheo Prakash Dubey was elected as the Manager, Satish Chandra was elected as the President and Sachi Kumari was elected as Mantri. This election was registered by the Deputy Registrar under Section 4 of the Act.

4. It is stated in the petition that on 1st May, 2007 some members of the Society submitted an application before the President of the Society stating that the Manager, Sheo Prakash Dubey, was working against the interest of the Society and requested that a meeting be called for taking appropriate action. A meeting was held on 20th May, 2007 in which it was noticed that there was no provision for removal of an office bearer under the bye-laws and, therefore, the bye-laws were suitably amended. In the meeting subsequently held on 28th July, 2007 it was decided that the resolution dated 20th May, 2007 be sent to the Deputy Registrar. It is further stated in the petition that thereafter notices were sent by the Deputy Registrar to the petitioner as well as respondent No. 4 Sheo Prakash Dubey inviting objections but before any order could be passed a communication dated 30th October, 2007 was alleged to have been sent by Sachi Kumari to the Deputy Registrar mentioning therein that the proceedings for amendment of the bye-laws have been dropped. However, in the meeting of the Society held on 24th January, 2008 the bye-laws of the Society were again amended and the Manager, respondent No. 4 Sheo Prakash Dubey was also suspended and petitioner No. 2 Sachi Kumari was elected as the ad hoc Manager. The minutes of the meeting held on 24th January, 2008 and the suspension order of respondent No. 4 were thereafter sent to the Deputy Registrar.

5. The case of the respondents, however, is that two members of the Executive Body of the Society namely Vidhyadhar Tiwari and Jagdish Chandra Dubey had in the meantime died and thus the membership of the Executive Body was reduced to 13. In such circumstances, the Manager Sheo Prakash Dubey enrolled twenty life members and five ordinary members in April, 2007 and in the meeting held on 25th October, 2007 Shyam Babu Dubey was elected as the Treasu