Hon’ble Manoj Misra, J.—The present petition has been filed assailing the order dated 9.1.2018 passed by the Deputy Registrar, Firms, Societies and Chits, Meerut Region, Meerut (second respondent) by which he has accepted the resolution dated 5.10.2017 of the Board of Management of SPS Residency, a Residents Welfare Association (in short the society/ RWA), registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860 (in short Act, 1860), in respect of removal of the petitioner from the post of President of the society and has rejected the objection of the petitioner against it.

2. In nutshell, the society is an association of residents of SPS Residency Apartments situated at 18-B, Vaibhav Khand, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad. The society has its registered bye-laws. The management of the society, as per bye-law No.18, is governed by a Board. The board of management comprises of 10 persons to be elected by the members by simple majority in the general body. The principal office bearers of the society are: President; Vice President; Secretary; and Treasurer, all of whom are elected by and from the Board. Bye-law No.26 provides that the term of the office bearers of the Board shall be one year from the date of assuming office and they would be eligible for re-election. Provided that a person cannot hold the same post continuously for more than two years. Bye-law No.28 provides for removal of office bearers. According to it, at any regular or special meeting duly called, any one or more of the office bearers may be removed with or without cause, by a majority of apartment residents and a successor may then and there be elected to fill the vacancy thus created. It is also provided therein that any office bearer whose removal has been proposed by the residents shall be given an opportunity to be heard at the meeting.

3. The petitioner indisputably was elected by the Board as President thereof on 11.6.2017. It is the case of the petitioner that her term as President was one year and there is no provision in the Bye-laws other than Bye-law No.28 for removal of office bearers and therefore she could not have been removed till expiry of one year from the date of her election except in the manner provided by Bye-law No.28.

4. According to the petitioner on 5.10.2017, the Board of Management of the Society had allegedly conducted a meeting to remove the petitioner from the post of President and allegedly passed a resolution of removal in its meeting dated 5.10.2017, which is completely unauthorized and illegal, inasmuch as, removal could only be by a resolution of majority of apartment residents and not by the Board. It is thus the case of the petitioner that the resolution of the Board dated 5.10.2017 is void and contrary to the Bye-laws of the Society and, as such, it could not have been accepted by the Deputy Registrar.

5. The Deputy Registrar however by the impugned order rejected the claim of the petitioner by holding that removal from the post of President does not amount to removal as an office bearer of the society and, therefore, the provisions of Bye-law No.28 would not be applicable; whereas, since the President is elected by the Board of Management, the Board of Management would have right to appoint another President in place of the petitioner and, as such, the resolution dated 5.10.2017 does not suffer from any legal infirmity.

6. Assailing the order of the Deputy Registrar (second respondent), the present petition has been filed.

7. I have heard Sri Ashish Mishra for the petitioners; Sri Gajendra Pratap, learned Senior Counsel, assisted by Sri Gautam Baghel, for the respondents 3 to 7; and the learned Standing Counsel for the respondents 1 and 2.

8. Before proceeding to notice the rival contentions of the learned counsel for the parties, it would be useful to examine the relevant Bye-laws of the Society.

Bye-law No. 2 (b) defines Association as follows :

“Association means the Association of all the apartment residents constitute