Civil Rule No. 12785 (W) of 1981. Case: Ali Ahmed Vs State of West Bengal. High Court of Calcutta (India)
| Case Number | Civil Rule No. 12785 (W) of 1981 |
| Counsel | For Appellant: Arun Prakash Sircar, Adv.and For Respondents: Milan Chandra Bhattacharya, Adv. |
| Judges | Paritosh Kumar Mukherjee, J. |
| Issue | Election |
| Citation | 1992 ILR (2) Cal 292 |
| Judgement Date | April 02, 1991 |
| Court | High Court of Calcutta (India) |
Judgment:
Paritosh K. Mukherjee, J.
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The present writ petition, was moved by Ali Ahmed and others before this Court on December 11, 1981, challenging, inter alia, two dispute cases, being dispute case No. 15 of 1981-82 and dispute case No. 17 of 1981-82.
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The facts relating to the dispute in both the cases are almost identical and dispute case No. 15 of 1981-82 was withdrawn by the party concerned, viz., by Panchanan Ghosh, and only one dispute, being dispute case No. 17 of 1981-82 is surviving, which is the subject-matter of the present writ petition.
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At the time of the issuance of the Rule, Sabyasachi Mukharji, J. (as His lordship then was) on December 11, 1981, having issued the Rule, granted the interim orders and thereby stayed the operation, of the order dated November 27, 1981, passed by the learned Arbitrator, subject to this that, if in the mean time, the Managing Director of the said Society and the election of the Office Bearer also need not take place initially up to January 12, 1982, but should be held within 7 days thereafter.
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This writ petition ultimately came up for final hearing before me, initially on August 1, 1985, and the hearing was fixed and it was heard in part on August 23, 1985, and ultimately the hearing was concluded today, i.e. April 2, 1991, and judgment is being delivered today.
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This writ petition is directed against an interlocutory order dated November 27, 1981, passed by Shri N. Goswami, the learned Arbitrator.
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Earlier, a dispute was raised at the instance of the State of West Bengal and, on an application for interlocutory order in terms of Sub-section (3) of Section 87 of the West Bengal Co-operative Societies Act, 1973 (hereinafter referred to as the said Act), was filed by the State of West Bengal, inter alia, for the following prayers:
As State of West Bengal is a share-holder of the West Bengal State Cooperative Marketing Federation Limited and owns share worth Rs. 5,86,21 lakhs, out of the total paid up share capital of Rs. 394.98 lakhs of the said Cooperative Society and a member of the said Society, the Plaintiff prays for an interlocutory order in terms of Section 87(3) of the West Bengal Cooperative Societies Act, 1973, restraining the Defendants Nos. 1, 2, 3, 4 from giving any effect/further effect to the impugned election held on 29.10.81 in the interest of and for the preservation of the properties of the West Bengal State Co-operative Marketing Federation Limited.
The Plaintiff further prays that the aforesaid interlocutory order is all the more necessary as the State of West Bengal had sufficient stake in the said Society and is keen on protecting the interest of the State.
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On the basis of the said application for interlocutory order, the following interlocutory orders were passed by Shri N. Goswami, the learned Arbitrator, which is set out hereinbelow:
In processing the said application Shri S.K. Roy Chowdhury in his verified petition as well as in oral submission states that the annual general meeting of the Defendant No. 1 was held on October 29, 1981, in pursuance to the order of the Supreme Court of India passed on August 28, 1981. In the said order, the Hon'ble Court appointed the Registrar, Original Side of the High Court at Calcutta to convene the meeting and to conduct and supervise the election of the Directors of the Defendant No. 1. The Registrar has accepted the nomination papers of the Defendants Nos. 2 to 4, who have incurred disqualification to be re-elected in view of the fact that they have held office of the Director of the Defendant No. 1 for more than 3 years or three terms, in violation of the Section 23 of the W.B.C.S. Act, which provides that a person cannot seek re-election if he has held such office continuously for more than 3 years or three terms whichever is earlier. There has been flagrant violation of the Section 23 of the W.B.C.S. Act in acceptance of the nomination papers of the Defendants Nos. 2 to 4. This was done in spite of the objection raised by the parties at the time of scrutiny of the same and the election of the Defendants Nos. 2 to 4 of the Directors was held illegally on October 29, 1981.
Considered the application along with the main petition and heard the parties. I find there is a strong prima facie case for issuing an interlocutory order in the interest of and for the preservation of the properties of the Defendant No. 1 of which the Petitioner is major share-holder, in terms of para 2 of the application.
It is, therefore, ordered that the Defendants are hereby restrained from giving any effect or further effect to the election of the Directors of the Defendant No. 1 held on October 29, 1981, till disposal of the instant dispute case or any order as may be passed, on the basis of the objection of the opposite parties. The Defendants are given liberty to file the objection if any to the application within 7 days from the date of receipt of this order it is further ordered that the main petition along with the objection, if any, will be heard on December 21, 1981, at 12 noon. The Plaintiff is directed to take steps for service of summons.
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Mr. A.P. Sircar, learned Advocate appearing on the final hearing, in support of the writ petition moved on behalf of Ali Ahmed and others, has made the following submissions, for consideration of this Court.
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He submitted in the first place that the dispute case being dispute case No. 17 of 1981 having been raised by the State of West Bengal, who was a party to an 'agreed order' passed by the Hon'ble Supreme Court on August 27, 1981, was incompetent, as the State of West Bengal was bound by the said 'agreed order' passed by the Hon'ble Suprem'e Court, which runs as follows:
Learned Counsel for the parties are agreed that Managing Committee of the West Bengal State Cooperative Marketing Federation Ltd. may be elected as a whole afresh in view of the order of dissolution of the earlier Managing Committee passed by the Government. They are also agreed that the Registrar functioning on the Original Side of the High Court of Calcutta may be deputed to supervise the conduct of the election which shall be held in a general meeting of the said Federation to be convened by him in accordance with the provisions of the West Bengal Cooperative Societies Act, 1973, and the rules framed thereunder.
We order accordingly in spite of the fact that the period of one year mentioned in Clause (c) of the Section 26A of the West Bengal Cooperative Societies Act, 1973, has expired, which factor in our opinion does not mean that no election can take place after such expiry. This order shall be communicated to the said...
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