Basvani Bhogeswara Rao vs Deputy Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Chilakalapudi, Krishna District and others

N.Y. Hanumanthappa, J.—This writ petition is filed seeking to issue an appropriate order, direction or a writ particularly one in the nature of a writ of mandamus declaring the provisions of Section 21(1-B) of the Andhra Pradesh Cooperative Societies Act, 1964 are not attracted to the case of the petitioner elected as Member of Naganna Cheruvu Mandal Territorial Constituency and also as the President of Chorampudi Primary Agricultural Co-operative Society No.H-1080 Chorampudi village in Bantumilli Mandal of Krishna District and to pass such other order or orders as this Hon''ble Court may deem fit and proper in the circumstances of the case.

The petitioner who has been elected as President of the Primary Agricultural Cooperative Society, Chorampudi village was earlier elected as Member of Mandal Territorial Constituency, Nagannacheruvu. Consequent upon his election as President of Primary Agricultural Co-operative Society, Chorampudi village the respondent seems to have intimated the petitioner to resign from the membership of Mandal Territorial Constituency, Nagannacheruvu in terms of Section 21(1-B) of the Andhra Pradesh Cooperative Societies Act, which would enable him to function as President of Primary Agricultural Co-operative Society, Chorampudi village.

Learned Counsel for the petitioner Sri Koka Raghava Rao, strenuously contented that Section 21(1-B) of the Andhra Pradesh Co-operative Societies Act (for short ''the Act'') is ultra virus and unconstitutional on the ground that it is not enabling the petitioner who is elected as President of the Primary Agricultural Co-operative Society to discharge his functions as a Member of Mandal Territorial Constituency and thus according to him Section 21(1-B) of the Act does not include a Member of Mandal Territorial Constituency to hold that a Member of Mandal Territorial Constituency is disqualified from holding that post. He further contended that if that section is to be made applicable to the Members of the Mandal Territorial Constituency the same might have been more specific, that is to say, that an elected President of the Primary Agricultural Co-operative Society shall ceases to be a Member of the Mandal Territorial Constituency and in the absence of any such specific mention in the said section the same is unconstitutional and ultra virus. He further contended that Sections 150 and 151 of the Andhra pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 contemplates the division of mandal into constituencies and election of members from territorical constituencies respectively and by virtue of these two sections the petitioner is not liable to resign from one office. Thus urged that the writ petition is liable to be allowed.

On the other hand learned Government Pleader appearing for the respondent contended that there is no ambiguity or uncertainty as far as Section 21(1-B) is concerned. According to him the members of the Mandal Territorial Constituency will not be directly elected and if one person becomes a Member of the Mandal Territorial Constituency it is sufficient that he is a Member of that Committee contemplated u/s 21(1-B) of the Act. He also took us through the provisions of Sections 150 and 151 of the Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1994. Thus he submitted that Section 21(1-B) is certain and rational.

After hearing learned Counsel on either side, in order to understand the controversy between the parties it is appropriate to extract the relevant sections, that is, Section 21(1-B) of the Act and Sections 150 and 151 of the Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1994 which reads as under:

"Section 21(1-B) : "(1B) A Member of the Legislative Assembly of the State, a Member of either House of the Parliament, Mayor of a Municipal Corporation, Chairman of a Municipal Council, elected member or Chairman of Zilla Parishad or elected member or President of Mandal Parishad or Sarpanch of a Gram Panchayat shall be eligible to be elected as a Member of the Committee; but he shall cease to be a member of the Committee unless within fifteen days from the date of becoming a member of the Committee he ceases to be a Member of the Legislative Assembly of the State or a Member of either House of the Parliament, Mayor of a Municipal Corporation, Chairman of a Municipal Council, elected Member or Chairman of a Zilla Parishad or elected member or President of a Mandal Parishad or Sarpanch of a Gram Panchayat by resignation or otherwise; and if a member of the Committee is subsequently elected to any one of the aforesaid offices, he shall cease to be the member of the Committee unless within fifteen days from the date on which he is elected to any one of such offices he ceases to hold such office by resignation or otherwise."

"Section 150 & 151 of Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj, Act, 1994 :

Division of Mandal into constituencies-for the purpose of electing the members specified in clause (i) of sub-section (1) of Section 149, the Commissioner shall, subject to such rules as may be made in this behalf, divide each Mandal Parishad area into as many Territorial Constituencies as he may, by notification specify, in such manner that, as far as practicable, shall consist of a population ranging between three thousand and four thousand, and that the ratio between the population of each constituencies and the number of seats allotted to it shall, as far as practicable, be the same throughout the Mandal Parishad area:

Provided that the ratio between the population of the territorial area of a Mandal Parishad and the number of seats in such Parishad to be filled by election shall, as far as practicable, be the same throughout the State.

Election of members from Territorial Constituencies :--(1) One member shall be elected to the Mandal Parishad from each Territorial Constituency specified in Section 150 by the method of secret ballot by the persons who are registered voters in the Territorial Constituency concerned:

Provided that a registered voter in the Mandal Parishad shall be entitled to contest from any Territorial Constituency of the Mandal Parishad.

(2) For purposes of preparation and publication of the electoral roll for the elections to the office of member under this section, the provisions of Sections 11 and 12 shall, mutatis mutandis apply, subject to such rules as may be made in this behalf."

From a reading of the above it is clear that a Mandal is a unit consisting of number of Territorial Constituencies. Elections will be held in respect of Territorial Constituencies. Persons so elected from to the unit will constitute a Committee and they will be called as Members of the Mandal Parishad, and they cannot be called as Members of Territorial Constituency. In our view, a person when elected as a President of Primary Agricultural Co-operative Society at the same time he is also a member of the Mandal Territorial Constituency elected through one of the Territorial Constituency he ceases to be a Member of that Territorial Constituency. If a Member of the Territorial Constituency gets elected to the post one contemplated under Andhra Pradesh Co-operative Societies Act, his former office shall automatically comes to an end failing which the law will take its own course. The object of Section 21(1-B) of the Act is to see that a person shall not hold two public offices. Therefore, we are of the view that Section 21(1-B) of the Act is neither ultra virus nor unconstitutional. Accordingly, the writ petition being devoid of merits, is dismissed. No costs.