Vacancies in society leadership require legally conducted elections under the Societies Registration Act.

1. All these 14 writ petitions pertain to the dispute of the office-bearers of Jamia Urdu, Aligarh and as such are being disposed of by this common judgment.

2. Heard S/Sri A. K. Gupta, I. B. Singh, Pradeep Upadhyaya, Manoj Misra, Wasim Alam, Seema Afroz, K. M. Tripathi, D. Singhal, R. K. Garg, Anil Kumar, Gyanendra Kumar, Iqbal Ahmad, S. A. Gilani, Ramjeet Yadav and I. U. Huda Advocates, counsel for the parties in all the above mentioned writ petitions.

3. Jamia Urdu, Aligarh, is a Society duly registered under the Societies Registration Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act). The said society has established various institutions for imparting education from primary school to higher education in the subject of Urdu. It is not in dispute between the parties that in Writ Petition No. 28840 of 1997 (Sri Anjum v. State of U.P. and others) filed by Sri Anjum against the order registering the amendment in the bye-laws of the society dated 26-6-1997 this Court vide judgment and order dated 2-9-1997 issued a direction to the Assistant Registrar to decide as to whether the amendments which have been incorporated in the bye-laws of the society have been approved in a meeting of the general body of the members of the society and further the persons who have participated in the said meeting were valid members of the general body of the society or not. In compliance of the aforesaid order of this Court the Assistant Registrar vide order dated 15-11-1997 held that the amendments as proposed have been resolved in a valid meeting of the general body and valid members of the general body had participated in the said meeting. The said order dated 15-11-1997 passed by the Assistant Registrar has become final and is not under challenge.

4. Dr. Mohd. Usman Khan claiming himself to be the Registrar of the petitioner-society filed Writ Petition No. 44938 of 2000 wherein an interim order was passed by this Court on 22-11-2000. Under the interim order the petitioner was required to move two applications; one under S. 24 and the other under S. 25(2) of the Societies Registration Act . The first application pertains to the embezzlement of the funds of the society by the earlier Registrar of the petitioner-Society. The second application was for holding fresh elections of office-bearers held under S. 25(2) of the Act. It is stated on behalf of the petitioner that in compliance of the aforesaid interim order of this Court dated 22-11-2000 the Deputy Registrar Firms, Societies and Chits, Lucknow passed an order dated 4-4-2003 whereby he held that fresh elections have not been held since 1997 and directed that fresh elections may take place from the list of the members who were present in the meeting held in the year 1997. The Assistant Registrar also passed an order under S. 24 of the Act recording therein that the Secretary of the Society, namely Syed Anwar Saeed has embezzled a sum of Rs. 10.77 crores. Ultimately on 19-6-2003 the Deputy Registrar Firms, Societies and Chits, Agra, for the purposes of getting fresh elections held, again directed that the members of the general body who were present in the elections of 1997 alone would be entitled to participate in the elections and the District Magistrate, Agra was directed to conduct the elections accordingly. However, the Secretary of the Society, Syed Anwar Saeed, submitted a list of 9 members said to be valid members of the general body who had participated in the elections of 1997. The District Magistrate, on the basis of the list so submitted held fresh elections of the