Rajinder Pal Singh and Another vs State of U.P. and Others

Dilip Gupta, J.—This petition has been filed for setting aside the order dated 17th July, 2009 passed by the Regional Level Committee by which it has accepted the electoral college of 83 members of the General Body submitted by the respondent No. 5 Ranveer Singh for elections of the Committee of Management and has rejected the list of 97 members submitted by the petitioners.

The dispute in the present petition is as to which members should participate in the elections of the Committee of Management of Sri Guru Nanak High School Bhur, Khatauli (hereinafter referred to as the ''School''). According to the petitioners, the valid list is the list of 97 members which has been annexed as Annexure 5 to the writ petition whereas according to the respondents, the valid list is the list of 83 members which has been annexed as Annexure 12 to the writ petition.

This Court in Writ Petition No. 27916 of 2008 filed by the petitioners directed the Regional Level Committee to take a fresh decision in accordance with law in respect of the members of the General Body who are entitled to participate in the election of the Committee of Management after giving opportunity of hearing to the parties. It is pursuant to the aforesaid order that the Regional Level Committee finalised the list on 17th April, 2009 holding that the list of 83 members submitted by the respondents is the correct list.

I have heard Sri Ashok Khare, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Sri Prabhakar Awasthi, learned Counsel appearing for the petitioners and Sri P.N. Saxena, learned Senior Counsel for the respondents assisted by Sri Awadh Narain Rai.

Sri Ashok Khare, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioners submitted that the order deserves to be set aside as evidence was filed subsequent to the date of hearing and in support of this submission he has placed reliance upon the Division Bench judgment of this Court in Ramadhar Shashtri and Anr. v. Deputy Director of Education, IV Region, Allahabad and Ors. 1987 UPLBEC 14. Elaborating his submission, he pointed out that pursuant to the directions issued by this Court, the Regional Level Committee fixed 9th April, 2009 for hearing on which date the petitioners submitted a representation before the Regional Level Committee demanding certain documents and subsequently also moved an application on 14th May, 2009 reiterating this plea. Respondent No. 5 Ranveer Singh submitted a reply dated 18th June, 2009 annexing certain documents but they were not supplied to the petitioners before passing the impugned order.

Sri P.N. Saxena, learned Senior Counsel for the respondents, however, submitted that in the representation dated 18th June, 2009 the respondent No. 5 Ranveer Singh had merely pointed out that the original records were not available with him and were available with Sardar Sukhdev Singh Gill and, therefore, the contention advanced by the learned Counsel for the respondents deserves to be rejected.

I have carefully considered the submissions advanced by the learned Counsel for the parties.

It is not in dispute that on 9th April, 2009, both the parties appeared before the Regional Level Committee and submitted their statements. In his statement, Ranveer Singh, respondent No. 5 stated that whatever documents were filed by him in Writ Petition No. 68758 of 2005 and Writ Petition No. 46173 of 2007 may be considered and he does not desire to file any other evidence but if the other side files evidence along with the statement, then photocopies may be supplied to him so that he can file a reply. The petitioners in their statement referred to their earlier representations and also stated that the earlier Manager Ranveer Singh should file the original documents relating to the membership of the General Body and copies may be supplied to them for filing a supplementary statement within 15 days.

Pursuant to the aforesaid demand made by the petitioners, the Regional Level Committee, by its communication dated 26th May, 2009 directed Ranveer Singh to file five documents mentioned in the letter. Respondent No. 5, Ranveer Singh, however, submitted his statement with documents by his letter dated 18th June, 2009. It is the submission of Sri Ashok Khare, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the petitioners that this statement and the documents were not supplied to the petitioners and, therefore, the order passed by the Regional Level Committee deserves to be set aside solely on this ground as evidence had been entertained after the hearing was concluded on 9th April, 2009. Sri P.N. Saxena, learned Senior Counsel appearing for the respondents, however, submitted that evidence had not been submitted along with the statement and all that had been pointed out was that the records were not available with Ranveer Singh but were available with the earlier President of the Society namely Sardar Sukhdev Singh Gill. A copy of the receipt by which the record was made available to Sardar Sukhdev Singh Gill was, however, filed with the statement.

It has, therefore, to be considered whether the order passed by the Regional Level Committee stands vitiated as statement filed by respondent No. 5 Ranveer Singh after the date of hearing on 9th April, 2009 was taken into consideration by the Regional Level Committee without supplying a copy of the same to the petitioners. A Division Bench of this Court in Ramadhar Shashtri (supra) observed that such a procedure wherein documents are accepted after the date of hearing, vitiates the order.

In the present case, the dispute is about the members of the General Body of the Society who can participate in the election of the Committee of Management. The petitioners had submitted an application before the Regional Level Committee that respondent No. 5 Ranveer Singh should submit the original documents before the Regional Level Committee including the original list of members of the General Body of the Society and copies may be supplied to the petitioners so that they can file a proper reply. The Regional Level Committee required respondent No. 5 Ranveer Singh to submit these documents but in his reply he merely stated that these documents had been given to the ex-President Sardar Sukhdev Singh Gill and in support thereof he enclosed a document containing the endorsement made by Sardar Sukhdev Singh Gill regarding receipt of these documents. It was, therefore, imperative for the Regional Level Committee to have supplied this representation of respondent No. 5 Ranveer Singh along with the receipt so that either the petitioners could have obtained these documents from Sardar Sukhdev Singh Gill or could have apprised the Regional Level Committee that this was an incorrect statement but that was not done.

In this view of the matter, the order dated 17th July, 2009 passed by the Regional Level Committee deserves to be set aside and is, accordingly, set aside. The Regional Level Committee shall pass a fresh order in accordance with law and in accordance with the observations made above expeditiously, preferably within a period of two months from the date a certified copy of this order is produced by either of the parties before the Regional Level Committee.

The writ petition is allowed to the extent indicated above.