The petitioners are the elected directors of the

Aircraft Employees House Building Co-operative Society

Limited (the first respondent), and they have impugned

the second

respondent9s

order dated

15.03.2022

(Annexure-G). The second respondent, by this order,

has notified calendar of events for holding elections to

fill up the post that has fallen vacant on the demise of

Sri B.Narasimha Murthy, who was elected with the

petitioners to the Board in the elections held on

17.01.2021. It is undisputed that the calendar of

events

is

modified

subsequently

and

the

latest

modification is by the order dated 04.07.2022.

2. Sri R.A. Devanand, the learned Counsel for the

petitioners, submits that Sri B. Narasimha Murthy died

on 09.06.2021 and as of his death, he had not

completed half of the term of his tenure as a director

and therefore the Society must co-opt a Director in his

4

place and elections cannot be held to fill up such post.

He submits that the length of the remaining tenure of

the Board as of the date a post falls vacant would be

decisive for the purposes of holding election or co-

opting, and if the period is so computed, the Board

could co-opt to fill up the vacant post. The merits of

this contention must necessarily be examined in the

light of the provisions of Section 29E of the Karnataka

Cooperative Societies Act, 1959 which reads as under:

<29E. Filling up of casual vacancy in the

office of members of the [Board].- Any

vacancy in the office of members of the

[board] of a co-operative society by reason of

death, resignation, removal or otherwise,

shall be filled up in such manner as may be

specified in the bye-laws of such society.

Provided

that

the

co-operative

election

commission shall conduct the election to fill

up any vacancy in the office of the director of

the board if the remaining term of office of

the board is more than half of its original

term:

5

Provided further that the board may fill up a

casual vacancy on the board by nomination

out of the same class of member in respect of

which the casual vacancy has arisen, if the

remaining term of office of the board is less

than half of its original term:

Provided also that, if the Board fails to fill up

such casual vacancy within three months of

the date of occurrence, the Registrar shall fill

up through nomination.=

3. The crucial expression in both the first and the

second proviso to Section 29E is <original term=. In the

first

proviso

to

Section

29E,

the

Co-

operative Election Commission shall hold elections to fill

up a casual vacancy if the remaining term of the Board

is more than half of its original term and the second

proviso contemplates cooption in the case of a casual

vacancy if the remaining term of the office of the Board

is less than half of its original term. If the crucial

expression, for the purposes of computation to decide

whether there must be election or the co-option, is

8original term9, it must necessarily relate to the date of

the constitution of the Board at the first instance. The

6

date on which the post falls vacant would not be the

real test to compute. Therefore, the petitioners cannot

succeed on the grounds urged and the petition must

fail. The petition stands rejected accordingly.

Sd/-

JUDGE

nv