Federation Of All India Petroleum Traders & Another vs Commissioner, Garhwal Division, Pauri, Camp Dehradun & Others

Sudhanshu Dhulia, J

The petitioner no. 1 before this Court is a company which has been registered under the Companies Act, 1913. The case of the petitioners is that

respondent no. 2 has got itself registered as a Society with the same name as that of petitioner no. 1 i.e. “Federation of All India Petroleum

Tradersâ€, before respondent no. 4. The petitioners have moved a complaint/objection before the Deputy Registrar (Societies), Uttarakhand,

Dehradun that this registration was obtained by respondent no. 2 is by way of concealment of material facts and it amounts to fraud. The registration

of respondent no. 2 as a Society was consequently cancelled by the Deputy Registrar vide order dated 22.05.2013. Against that order, respondent no.

2 has filed a statutory appeal before the Divisional Commissioner, Garhwal. The Divisional Commissioner, however, without hearing the parties, has

passed an order dated 03.06.2013, by which he has stayed the order of the Deputy Registrar (Societies). Aggrieved by the said order of the Divisional

Commissioner, petitioners filed a writ petition before this Court being WPMS No.1863 of 2013, where initially a learned Single Judge of this Court vide

order dated 12.08.2013 had granted an interim relief to the petitioners and thereafter the said writ petition was disposed of by this Court vide order

dated 09.12.2013 by passing the following order:-

“The petitioners have challenged primarily the registration of respondent no. 2/Society which was registered under the Societies Registration Act.

There are claims and counter claims by the respective parties over the name i.e. “the Federation of All India Petroleum Traders,†whereas

petitioner no. 1 was registered as a Company under the Companies Act, 1913 and thereafter, it was deregistered. Subsequently, respondent no. 2 got

itself registered as a Society with the name of “Federation of All India Petroleum Traders.†The petitioners moved a complaint/objection before

the Deputy Registrar (Societies), Uttarakhand, Dehradun that this registration was obtained by respondent no. 2 by concealment of the material facts

and it amounts to registration by way of fraud. The registration of the respondent no. 2 as a Society was hence cancelled. Respondent no. 2,

thereafter filed a statutory appeal before the Divisional Commissioner, Garhwal. The Divisional Commissioner, without hearing the parties stayed the

order of the Deputy Registrar (Societies) although petitioners have filed a caveat.

Aggrieved by the said order of the Divisional Commissioner, petitioners filed writ petition against the order of the Divisional Commissioner which

was stayed by the learned Single Judge vide order dated 12.08.2013.

Counter affidavit has been filed. However, since the statutory appeal is already pending before the Divisional Commissioner, Garhwal it would be

befitting that the matter be heard by the appellate authority. Consequently, the writ petition is disposed of with the direction that the Divisional

Commissioner, Garhwal shall decide the matter in accordance with law as expeditiously as possible but definitely within a period of 8 weeks from the

date of production of certified copy of this order.

Purely in the interest of justice, the stay granted by this Court vide order dated 12.08.2013 shall be effective till the matter is disposed of finally by

the Divisional Commissioner, Garhwal, when it will be automatically vacated.

Writ petition disposed of accordingly.â€​

Pursuant to the order passed by this Court, now the Divisional Commissioner after hearing all the parties vide order dated 19.01.2015 had remanded

the matter back to the Deputy Registrar, Firms, Societies and Chits, Dehradun for considering the matter afresh, in accordance with law.

The petitioners are aggrieved by the fact that the registration in favour of respondent no. 2 still continues.

Since the matter is pending before the Deputy Registrar, Firms, Societies and Chits, Dehradun, the writ petition is disposed of with a direction to the

Deputy Registrar, Firms, Societies and Chits, Dehradun that he shall decide the matter as expeditiously as possible, but definitely within a period of six

weeks from the date a certified copy of this order is received by him.

Till a decision is taken in the matter, the interim order dated 25.03.2015 shall continue.