Writ petitions for repayment of fixed deposits are not maintainable without statutory violation; disputes must be resolved under the Co-operative Societies Act.

J U D G M E N T

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The petitioner, who is an A Class Government Contractor doing work of PWD for the last 35 years, has approached this Court seeking to declare that respondents 1 to 4 are legally and statutorily bound to repay the Fixed Deposit with applicable interest to the petitioner and to declare respondents 1 to 4 to repay the fixed deposit amount deposited by the petitioner.

2. The petitioner states that he has made Fixed Deposits of various amounts, with the Arayoor Service Co-operative Bank Limited. The petitioner has made Fixed Deposits for a total amount of ₹1,55,05,836/- in the Bank. The petitioner approached the Bank to release Fixed Deposits for the purpose of conducting the marriage of his daughter. The Bank did not pay. The petitioner had to postpone the wedding due to lack of funds.

3. The petitioner therefore sent Ext.P1 lawyer notice dated 28.03.2022 to the Bank seeking payment of Fixed Deposit amount. The marriage of the petitioner's daughter is fixed on 09.11.2022. Out of the total principal amount of Fixed Deposit, the Bank had repaid only an amount of ₹6,73,454/-. An amount of ₹1,48,32,367/- is due to the petitioner towards principal and interest. The repeated requests made by the petitioner did not yield any result. Hence, the petitioner is before this Court seeking to direct the respondents to pay the Fixed Deposit.

4. Relying on the judgment of this Court in Gandhigram Agro Based Industrical Co-operative Society Limited v. Marangattupilly Service Co-operative Bank Limited and others [2019 (3) KHC 60] , the counsel for the petitioner argued that a Co-operative Society accepting money from another Co-operative Society has to repay the amount. In such cases, it cannot be said that there is a dispute and that the matter has to be adjudicated under Section 69 of the Co-operative Societies Act .

5. The 1 st respondent-Bank resisted the writ petition. The 1 st respondent submitted that the financial position of the 1 st respondent-Bank is not sound, so as to return the entire amount of deposit to all depositors. The Bank has returned ₹60 Crores to the depositors. In view of the weak financial position, the applications for return of Fixed Deposits are considered according to the payments received from other sources. In the process of returning of his deposits, after 21.06.2021 and up to 13.10.2022, an amount of ₹45,59,022/- was paid to the petitioner towards principal and ₹15,11,292/- was given as interest.

6. The respondents pointed out that due to financial constraints, even the employees are not paid full salary. An amount of ₹55.2 Crores is to be received as loan repayment and ₹28.61 as interest. An amount of ₹12 Crores is due to the Society towards transferring to the MDS. Thus, a total amount of ₹95.9 Crores is to be received by the Society.

The total deposit liability of the Bank is only ₹100 Crores.

7. I have heard the learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel representing the respondents.

8. The grievance of the petitioner is relating to non- payment of Fixed Deposit amounts. Whether a writ petition is maintainable for payment of money payable by the Co-operative Banks came up for consideration before this Court in Meenachil Rubber Marketing and Processing Co- operative Society Limited No.K118 and another v. Choondachery Service Co-operative Bank Limited No.167 and another [ 2018 (2) KHC 180 ] and a Division Bench of this Court held that writ petition filed for issuing a direction to Co-operative Society to repay amount covered by Fixed Deposit with future interest, will not be maintainable in the absence of any violation of any statutory provisions or breach of any public duty by the Co-operative Society. In Managing Director, Kerala State Co-operative Rubber Marketing Federat