Special appellate jurisdiction is limited to final orders; interim orders from writ petitions challenging tribunal decisions are not appealable under prevailing court rules.

JUDGMENT :

1. This appeal is directed against the order dated 08.04.2025 passed by learned Single Judge in Writ-C No. 8908 of 2025, whereby the learned Single Judge has stayed the operation of the order dated 22.01.2025 passed in Case No. 5419 of 2024 by the Prescribed Authority/Sub-divisional Magistrate under Section 25 (1) of the Societies Registration Act, 1860 ('the Act').

2. The subject matter of the writ petition pertains to the election of a Society, namely, Dr. Sudama Prasad Bal Vidya Mandir, Vigyan Kanan Kutir, Kutchery Road, Khirni Bagh Shahar, District Shahjahanpur, whose elections were held on 27.09.2020, in which respondents no. 4 and 5 were elected as Manager and President, respectively. The Committee of Management of the Society was recognized by the Assistant Registrar. Subsequently, the order was reviewed by the Assistant Registrar by order dated 27.01.2023, which came to be challenged before this Court, which allowed the writ petition referring the matter to the Prescribed Authority under Section 25 (1) of the Act. Against the order passed, special appeal was filed wherein interim order was granted, however, the appeal came to be decided on 20.02.2024.

3. On reference being made, the Prescribed Authority passed the order dated 22.01.2025, whereby the appellants herein were recognized as President and Manager of the Society. Feeling aggrieved, the writ petition was filed.

4. Based on the contentions raised before learned Single Judge, as noticed in the order impugned, learned Single Judge found that the matter required consideration and granted four weeks time to the appellants and other respondents to file counter affidavit and four weeks' for filing rejoinder affidavit and passed the interim order staying the order dated 22.01.2025. Feeling aggrieved, the present special appeal has been filed.

5. Learned counsel for the respondents raised preliminary objection that the special appeal is barred under Chapter VIII Rule 5 of the ALLAHABAD HIGH COURT RULES , 1952 ('the Rules'), as the order passed under Section 25 (1) of the Act is that of the Tribunal and as the orders passed under Article 226/227 against the orders passed by the Tribunal are not open to special appeal under the Rules, the appeal deserves dismissal.

6. Reliance was placed on Jai Prakash Agarwal Vs. Prescribed Authority : (1999) 1 UPLBEC 697 , Mohd Talib Khan Vs. State of U.P. and others : (2008) 1 UPLBEC 538 , Bhupendra Singh Vs. State of U.P. and others : (2010) 3 UPLBEC 2009 and Abul Kaish Khan and others Vs. Assistant Registrar, Firms Societies and Chits and others : Special Appeal No. 214 of 2009, decided on 07.04.2011.

7. Learned counsel for the appellants made submissions that the plea raised pertaining to the maintainability of the appeal has no substance as the appeal has been filed against the interim order. Submissions have been made that the judgments in the case of Mohd Talib Khan (supra), Bhupendra Singh (supra) and Abul Kaish Khan (supra) arose out of the final orders passed in writ petitions regarding which it was held that special appeal is not maintainable, however, a Larger Bench in Ashutosh Shrotriya and others Vs. Vice-Chancellor, Dr. B.R. Ambedkar University and others : (2015) 4 UPLBEC 2673 has held that the appeal under Chapter VIII Rule 5 of the Rules would be maintainable against an interim order and, therefore, the plea raised in this regard has no substance.

8. Further submissions have been made that this Court in Smt. Surati Devi and 3 others Vs. Inderjeet and 3 others : Special Appeal No. 452 of 2016, decided on 20.07.2