The court clarified that an administrative body cannot enrol or remove members of a cooperative society without due process specified in the cooperative rules.

JUDGMENT

Babu Mathew P. Joseph, J.

These Writ Appeals are directed against the order dated

5.10.2012 on I.A.No.13197 of 2012 in W.P.(C) No.16564 of 2012 of a learned single Judge of this Court. The appellant in W.A.No.1807 of 2012 is the 4th respondent in I.A. and Writ Petition. The 1st respondent is the petitioner in I.A. and Writ Petition. The respondents 2 to 7 in this Writ Appeal are the respondents 1 to 3 and 5 to 7 respectively in I.A. and Writ Petition. The appellants in W.A.No.1856 of 2012 are not parties to I.A. and Writ Petition. They have preferred this Appeal challenging the said order of the learned single Judge with the leave granted by this Court. The respondents 1 to 4, 6 to 8 and the 5th respondent in this Writ Appeal are the respondents 1 to 7 and the appellant respectively in W.A. No.1807 of 2012. The parties are referred to in this judgment as they are arrayed in W.A.No. 1807 of 2012 and the appellants in W.A.No.1856 of 2012 will be referred to separately as and when required. By the impugned order, the learned single Judge directed not to allow 3115 new members enrolled by the appellant to cast their votes and directed to include in the voters list 3994 members who were removed by the appellant from the voters list and allowed them to cast their votes in the coming election to the 4th respondent Vatakara Co-operative Rural Bank Ltd. (for short, the Bank).

2. Heard Shri. N.N.Sugunapalan, the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the appellant in W.A.No. 1807 of 2012, Shri. T. Krishnanunni, the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the appellants in W.A.No.1856 of 2012, Shri.M.K.Damodaran, the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the 1st respondent, Shri.D.Somasundaram, the learned Special Government Pleader appearing for the respondents 2, 3 and 7, Shri. S.V.Balakrishna Iyer, the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the 4th respondent, and Shri.K.Mohanakannan, the learned counsel appearing for the respondents 5 and 6. Since similar questions are involved, both the Writ Appeals were heard together and are being disposed of by this common judgment.

3. The brief facts necessary for the disposal of these Writ Appeals are as follows: The 1st respondent is a member of the 4th respondent, the Bank. He was an elected member of the Board of Directors of the Bank. He also functioned as the Vice President of the Bank. The last election to the Board of Directors of the Bank was held on 12.11.2006. The term of office of the Board of Directors was to expire on 12.11.2011. However, for want of quorum, the Board of Directors of the Bank was superseded by Ext.P3 order dated 29.8.2011 issued by the 3rd respondent, Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies (General). By that order, an Administrative Committee with three members was constituted for managing the affairs of the Bank for a period upto six months. The 3rd respondent, as per Ext.P6 order dated 8.2.2012, extended the term of the Administrative Committee of the Bank by six months from 1.3.2012 and directed it to take necessary steps for election to the Board of Directors. It was also directed in Ext.P6 to remove ineligible members from the Bank and to give membership to those persons who were denied membership in the Bank. The 1st respondent and another challenged Ext.P6 order before this Court in W.P.(C) No.4406 of 2012. As regards the direction issued by the 3rd respondent to give membership to persons who were denied membership in the Bank, the learned Special Government Pleader submitted before this Court in that Writ Petition that in view of the decision of this Court in Karunakaran Pillai v. Venugopala Pillai (2005 (3) KLT 348), the Administrative Committee cannot enrol members and it can only accept the applications, if any, received from persons seeking membership for consideration by the elected Managing Committee as and when the elected Managing Committee is constituted. W.P.(C) No.4406 of 2012 has been disposed of by this Court by Ext.P7 judgment dated 12.3.2