By the Court.—Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri Shivam Yadav for the respondent-Development Authority.

2. M/s. Omaxe Buildhome Pvt. Ltd. are the promoters of the multi-storied building called Grand Omaxe, which consists of several flats/apartments.

3. Petitioner claiming to be a registered association by the name of Grand Omaxe Apartments Owners Association formed by the apartment owners of the said building, has approached this Court challenging the letter dated 11.8.2014 issued by respondent No. 2, Deputy Registrar, Meerut Division, Meerut and the order dated 5.6.2015 passed by Chief Executive Officer of respondent No. 1, Development Authority.

4. An application for registration was presented before the Deputy Registrar through Shri P.V.S. Prasad claiming to have been elected as Secretary of the Association alongwith bye-laws and other relevant papers. In the said application, Major General Umong Sethi was shown to be elected as President, Rajesh Gupta as Vice President, Manish Gupta as Treasurer and Animesh Mishra, Mrs. Shilpa Panpalia, Ashish Kumar Sharma, Dipesh Jain, Rahul Rathore and Mrs. Anju Puniya as Executive Members. Another set of application was filed through Shri Srikant Tyagi alleging him to have been as elected President of the Association, Smt. Achla Singh as Vice President, Sanjay Goyal as Secretary, Smt. Kanak Murty as Joint Secretary, Manish Agrawal as Treasurer and Muktesh Shukla, Varun Kumar, R.P. Singh, Smt. Neelam Gandhi as members of the committee.

5. Deputy Registrar though registered the society by the name of Grand Omaxe Association of Apartment Owners and issued a registration certificate dated 8.8.2014, but vide impugned letter dated 11.8.2014 informed the Chief Executive Officer of the respondent Development Authority that on account of there being a dispute between the apartment owners with respect to the elected office bearers and members of the association and two rival groups were claiming to have been elected, the bye-laws, have not been registered and the matter is being referred to him to decide the dispute with respect to elected office bearers of the association. vide order dated 5.6.2015, Chief Executive Officer of the NOIDA Authority, though granted recognition to the Grand Omaxe Association of Apartment Owners under the U.P. Apartment Act, 2010, but referred the matter for adjudication of the dispute on election under Section 25 of the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (hereinafter referred to as ‘Act of 1860’) to the Prescribed authority.

6. Learned counsel for the petitioner contends that once the registration certificate was issued, it was incumbent upon the Deputy Registrar to have registered the bye-laws and the list of the elected office bearers submitted alongwith application and it could not have refused to register the bye-laws and the list of elected members. It is further submitted that respondent No. 1 also committed a patent illegality in referring the dispute under Section 25 of the Act of 1860 to the Prescribed Authority.

7. Two rival groups of the apartment owners starting claiming to have been elected as Board of Management entitled for registration of the Association. The Deputy Registrar instead of resolving the dispute between two rival groups exercising powers conferred by proviso to Section 3 (1) of Societies Registration Act, 1860 as applicable to the State of U.P. issued a registration certificate without registering the Bye-Laws. In our opinion, mere issuance of certificate of registration does not raise a presumption that society is duly registered. It is the rules and regulation and the memorandum, which could be certified under Section 19 of the Act, constitute a prima facie proof of registration. In this connection, it may be relevant to extract Section 1 to 3 of Societies Registration Act as applicable to State of U.P.

“1. Societies formed by memorandum of association and registration.—Any seven or more persons associated for any l