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Judgment
N.K. Sodhi, J.—This order will dispose of four writ petitions No. 631, 942. 4649 and 4734 of 1954 which were ordered to be heard together alongwith C.W.P. No. 14653 of 1993. At the time of hearing, C.W.P. 14653 of 1993 has been delinked from the other petitions and has been adjourned to 06.03.1995 to await the decision of the appeal filed by Bahadur Chand which is pending before the Additional Registrar (General) Cooperative Societies, Punjab.
Elections to the Board of Directors of the Amritsar Central Cooperative Bank Ltd., Amritsar (for short, the Central Bank) were held on 16.6.1992. This bank is a member of the Punjab State Cooperative Bank Ltd., Chandigarh (Hereinafter called the Apex Bank). Bahadur Chand one of the elected directors was elected Chairman of the Central Bank on 8.7.1992. The term of the Board of Directors of the Apex Bank came to the end in October, 1993 and fresh elections were to be held. A representative of the Central Bank had to be sent for participating in the elections. A meeting of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank had been summoned for 12.10.1993 and an item in the supplementary agenda was circulated for electing a representative. According to Bahadur Chand, Sukhdev Singh Director was elected unanimously to represent the Central Bank and the Chief Executive Officer without getting the proceedings authenticated from Chairman recorded in the proceedings book that Gurbhej Singh had been elected. The Central Bank through its Chief Executive Officer sent a copy of the supplementary resolution to the Apex Bank as per letter dated 16.10.1993 which was received there on 20.10.1993. Bahadur Chand also alleges that when the recorded "resolution was put up before the Chairman for his signatures on 23.10.93, he refused to sign the same because according to him Sukhdev Singh had been elected and not Gurbhej Singh. Bahadur Chand as Chairman of the Central Bank scored of the recorded resolution and recorded the correct resolution in the proceedings book on 23.10.1993 which contained a recital that Sukhev Singh had been elected in the meeting on 12.10.1993 to represent the Central Bank. A copy of the subsequently recorded resolution was also sent to the Apex Bank by the Chief Executive Officer and the same was received there on 26.10.1993. It is common case of the parties that the Apex Bank had two resolutions before it-one showing that Gurbhej Singh had been elected to represent the Central Bank whereas according to the other Sukhdev Singh was to represent the Central Bank. The election programme as published by the Apex Bank for the election of its Board of Directors was as under :--
Last date for receipt of Resolutions 25.10.1993. from the member Central Banks. 2. Last date for filing of the nomination 26.10.1993. (from 10 A.M. to 3.00 P.M.) 3. Time for receipt of objections 26.10.1993 (From 3.00 P.M. to 4.00 P.M.) 4. Last date for Scrutiny 27.10.1993
Gurbhej Singh aforesaid filed his nomination papers on 26.10.1993 with the Returning Officer. At the time of Scrutiny the returning officer found that there were two resolutions sent by the Central Bank in favour of two different individuals and he therefore, got in touch with the Chief Executive Officer of the Central Bank on telephone. The Returning Officer was told that the correct resolution was the one pertaining to Sukhdev Singh. On this, the returning Officer rejected the nomination papers of Gurbhej Singh for the following two reasons :-
(i) That he had not been sent as a representative by the Central banks and.
(ii) That the primary society, namely, Palasore Co-operative Agriculture Service Society Palasore, Tehsil Tarn Taran Distt. Amritsar the representative of which was Gurbhej Singh was a defaulter of the Central Bank.
At this stage , Gurbhej Singh filed Civil Writ petition 14653 of 1993 [Since reported as Gurbhej Singh Vs. The Punjab State Coop. Bank Limited and Others, ] challenging the rejection of his | nomination papers.
In the meantime, the Joint Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Jalandhar exercising the powers of the Registerar, Cooperative Societies, Punjab as per his order dated January 12,1994 removed Shri Bahadur Chand from the Chairmanship of the Board of Directors of the Central Bank u/s 27(2) of the Punjab Cooperative Bank Societies Act, 1961 (referred to hereinafter as the Act) on the ground that the Board had approved the name of Shri Gurbhej Singh and authorised him to participate in the election of the Apex Bank but he on his own wrote a new resolution in the proceedings book authorising Sukhdev Singh to represent the Central Bank. Bahadur Chand of filed C.W.P. 631 of 1994 in this court challenging the order of his removal. While this petition was pending he also filed a statutory appeal before the Registrar. Co-operative Societies, Punjab which is pending before the Additional Registrar (General). A prayer made by Bahadur Chand for stay of the operation of the impugned order was declined on 20.03.94 by the appellate authority. Bahadur Chand then filed revision petition before the state Government u/s 69 of the Act challenging the order refusing to stay the operation of the order of his removal. The revision petition came up for hearing before the Commissioner (Appeal), Jalandhar on 5.4.1994 and the order of removal of Bahadur Chand was stayed. Against this stay order the Central Bank filed C.W.P. 4734 of 1994. The motion Bench while admitting the writ petition stayed the operation of the order of Commissioner (Appeals), Jalandhar with the result that Bahadur Chand has not functioned as Chairman of the Central Bank ever since the date of his removal.
After the removal of Bahadur Chand, the Board of Directors of the Central Bank in their emergent meeting held on 17.1.1994 passed a resolution electing G.S. Sohal as their Chairman. Gurnam Singh, another Director of the Central Bank challenged this resolution by filing C.W.P. 942 of 1994 . Not only this, another Director Avtar Singh also challenged the election of G.S. Sohal as Chairman and filed a petition under Rule 80 of the Punjab Co-operative Societies Rules, 1963 (for brevity, the Rules) which is pending before the Additional Registrar (General). A prayer was made that the operation of the resolution dated January 17,1994 be stayed. The prayer was declined and the stay was refused. Against this refusal, Avtar Singh approached the State government u/s 69 of the Act and filed a revision petition before the Commissioner (Appeals), Jalandhar. The Commissioner heard this matter on 5.4.1994 and stayed the operation of the resolution dated 17.1.1994. The order of the Commissioner has been challenged by G.S. Chahal in C.W.P. 4649 of 1994. The motion Bench while admitting this writ petition stayed the operation of the order of the Commissioner.
To put the record straight, one more fact may be noticed. The appeal filed by Bahadur Chand against the order of his removal from the Chairmanship of the Central Bank is still pending before the Additional Registrar (General). Since the appeal was not being disposed of, he filed C.W.P. 17064 of 1994 in this court for a mandamus directing the Additional Registrar (General) to dispose of the pending appeal. This writ petition was disposed of on 12.12.1994 with a direction to the Additional Registrar (General) that the appeal be decided on merits on 20.1.1995 for which date it was fixed and if for any reason, the appellate authority was unable to decide the same on that day, it was directed to dispose of the appeal before the end of February, 1995. I am informed that the appeal is now fixed for 7/8.2.1995.
From what has been stated above, it is clear that C.W.P. 631 of 1994 filed by Bahadur Chand against the order of his removal has to be dismissed as infructuous because he has also filed a statutory appeal which is not only pending but this Court has already directed the Additional Registrar (General), Co-operative Societies to dispose of the same before the end of February, 1995. He cannot be allowed to challenge the order of his removal in this Court as also before the appellate authority. C.W.P. 631 of 1994 is, therefore, dismissed as infructuous.''
C.W.P. 4734 of 1994 has been filed by the Central Bank challenging the order of the Commissioner to stay the operation of the order of removal of Bahadur Chand. This Court while admitting this writ petition had stayed the operation of the order of the Commissioner. With the disposal of the appeal filed by Bahadur Chand the proceedings before the Commissioner will become infructuous. Therefore, this writ petition also deserves to be dismissed as infructuous. It is, however, made clear that since the appeal of Bahadur Chand is being disposed of before the end of February, 1995 and as he has remained out of office since 12.1.1994, the impugned order of the Commissioner shall remain stayed till the appeal is finally disposed of.
In C.W.P. 942 of 1994, the election of G.S. Sohal as Chairman after the removal of Bahadur Chand has been challenged. If Bahadur Chand''s appeal succeeds before the Additional Registrar (General), then the subject matter of this writ petition will also become infructuous. Even otherwise, the petitioner (Gurnam Singh) has an alternative remedy under the Act and the Rules to challenge the election and the same cannot be allowed to be agitated in this Court. This writ petition is, therefore, dismissed without adjudicating upon the merits of the impugned resolution dated 17.1.1994.
C.W.P. 4649 of 1994 filed by G.S. Sohal challenges the order of the Commissioner whereby he stayed the operation of the resolution dated 17.1.1994. The motion Bench while admitting this writ petition stayed the operation of the impugned order of the Commissioner. Consequently, G.S. Sohal is continuing to function as Chairman of the Central Bank. This writ petition is directed against the interim order and I am not inclined to interfere at this stage and consequently, this writ petition is dismissed. However, this resolution stands impugned by Avtar Singh in a petition filed under Rule 80 of the Rules which is pending before the Additional Registrar (General). He is directed to dispose of the same within two months from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. Since Bahadur Chand stands removed and there is no chairman of the Central Bank, G.S. Sohal will continue to function as such subject, however, to the order that may be passed by the Additional Registrar (General) on the appeal filed by Bahadur Chand and also on the petition filed by Avtar Singh under Rule 80 of the Rules.
With the aforesaid observations/directions, all the four writ petitions stand disposed of accordingly leaving the parties to bear their own costs.