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By the Court.—These appeals under Rule 5 Chapter VIII of the High Court Rules have been preferred by the rival claimants, against the judgment dated 23.7.2009 professing themselves to be the validly elected Committee of Management of a Society registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, namely Adarsh Shiksha Samiti, Charibana, Karchana, Allahabad, which runs a Junior High School in the name of Swatantrata Senani Ayodhya Prasad Tewari Junior High School, Charibana, Karchana, Allahabad.

2. The Society, which is admittedly registered under the 1860 Act, stands renewed up to the period 30.9.2009. A set of bye-laws have been framed and according to the said bye-laws, the elections of the office bearers and members of the Committee of Management has to be held annually. The dispute with regard to the claim of Management arose when Srikant Tewari claiming to be the Secretary-cum-Manager, the appellant in Special Appeal No. 1029 of 2009, submitted his list of office bearers before the Assistant Registrar, Firms, Societies & Chits, Allahabad, on the strength of the election held on 13.1.2008. This list was submitted on 29.1.2008. The Assistant Registrar did not find any endorsement of no objection of the outgoing office bearers including that of Rajmani Pandey, who was the outgoing Manager and is the appellant in Special Appeal No. 1242 of 2009, as such, he issued a notice to Rajmani Pandey with a copy of the same to Srikant Tewari. Objections were filed by Rajmani Pandey and inspite of demand by the Assistant Registrar, no document pertaining to the elections previously held in the preceding 5 years were submitted. The Assistant Registrar, after assessing the rival claims and the facts that were pleaded, came to the conclusion that the proceedings that were later on submitted by Rajmani Pandey pertaining to the alleged elections dated 2.10.2007 were all manipulated documents and had been submitted in order to raise a dispute with regard to the elections. The election of Rajmani Pandey were disbelieved by the Assistant Registrar on the ground that the contention that elections ought to have been held on the completion of 5 years yet the elections had been held before time, 2 years prior to the expiry of the period, was unacceptable as Rajmani Pandey himself claimed to have been elected in the said elections.

3. The Assistant Registrar, thereafter, went on to hold that the elections as submitted by Srikant Tewari have been conducted in accordance with the bye-laws as in support of the same the newspaper advertisement for holding of the election, the Affidavits of the employees and other documents were submitted. Accordingly, the list submitted by Srikant Tewari was accepted by the Assistant Registrar vide order dated 15.4.2008.

4. The said order dated 15.4.2008 was assailed by Rajmani Pandey in the writ petition which has given rise to the present appeals. The learned single Judge recorded the interim order passed by this Court in the writ petition on 4.4.2008 whereby status-quo was directed to be maintained by the parties with a further clarification that the Committee of Management which was functioning, and in effective control as on the date of passing of the interim order, shall continue to manage the institution in the meantime till the order is vacated or modified earlier. It was also brought on record before the learned single Judge that Srikant Tewari-the respondent in the writ petition had already held fresh elections on 4.1.2009. The learned single Judge interpreting the interim order passed by the Court held that the fresh elections which have been held during the pendency of the writ petition were in violation of the interim order dated 24.4.2008 and, as such, any action taken in violation of the interim order was a nullity and void ab-initio. The contention raised on behalf of Respondents that the petition had become infructuous on account of the expiry of the disputed tenure of the Committee of Manageme