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Judgment
V.V.S. Rao, J.—The petitioner borrowed certain amount from the Tirumala Co-operative Urban Bank Limited (''the Bank'' for brevity), the 3rd respondent herein in the year 2000. As there was alleged default in payment of the loan, the 3rd respondent invoked arbitration u/s 61 of the Andhra Pradesh Co-operative Societies Act, 1964 (''the Act'' for brevity) and obtained an ex parte award being ARC No. 6 of 2003 dated 26.5.2003. Aggrieved by the same, the petitioner filed an appeal being CTA No. 267 of 2003. The petitioner also filed an interlocutory application being IA No. 937 of 2003 for stay of all further proceedings pursuant to the Award. It is stated in the affidavit accompanying the writ petition that though there are two Members in the learned Tribunal, the Chairman has not been posted and therefore, the Members are not taking up interlocutory applications. In this background, the jurisdiction of this Court under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is invoked.
Heard the learned Counsel for the petitioner and the learned Counsel for the respondents.
The Tribunal constituted u/s 75 of the Act is essentially governed by the provisions of Sections 75 and 76 of the Act and the Rules known as the Andhra Pradesh Co-operative Tribunal (Procedure) Rules, 1994. Rule 13 of the Rules deals with the distribution of work and reads as under:
Distribution of work :--(1) The Chairman of the Tribunal shall distribute work among the Members of the Tribunal subject to the following:
(a) a Single Member shall hear all appeals, review applications for admission and interim orders and the Chairman shall entrust this work by rotation to all the members.
(b) all the appeals under Sub-section (1) of Section 76 of the Act after admission and interim orders, if any, shall be heard by two Members Bench consisting of a Judicial Member.
The Bench which has disposed of the appeal under Sub-section (1) of Section 76, shall hear and dispose of all review applications u/s 78 of the Act:
Provided that the Chairman constitute a three Member Bench whenever it is necessary basing on the nature of the case.
Explanation :--(i) The Single Member mentioned in Clause (a) above may be either the Chairman himself or any other Member.
(ii) The Tribunal shall fix a date for hearing and notice of the dates fixed for hearing shall be issued to the parties concerned by registered post Acknowledgement due in the Form-D annexed to these rules. A copy of the Acknowledgment due in the Form-D annexed to these rules. A copy of the memorandum of appeal shall also be furnished to the respondent or respondents.
(c) A copy of the affidavit and the application for suspension of impugned order shall also be furnished to the respondent or respondents along with the notice of hearing.
A plain reading of Clause (a) of Sub-rule (i) of Rule 13 makes it clear that a Single Member is competent to hear all appeals, review applications for admission and interim orders. The second part of Clause (a) is to the effect that the Chairman shall entrust the work by rotation to all members. The provision was intended to maintain the balance of workload among the Members and it was never intended to dilute the power of a Single Member to hear matters for admission, interim orders in the absence of the Chairman himself. The disjunctive word ''and'' cannot be ignored while interpreting Rule 13(i)(a). The power of the Chairman is only to see that the Members are allotted workload equally and for that reason, the power is entrusted to the Chairman. The entrustment duty given to the Chairman is not intended to divest the Single Member to independently hear admissions and interlocutory applications.
In the light of the view taken by me as above, I dispose of the writ petition directing either of the Single Member of the Andhra Pradesh Co-operative Tribunal, Hyderabad to immediately take up IA No. 937 of 2003 in CTA No. 267 of 2003 and pass orders on the said application forthwith. It shall be open to the petitioner to approach the Sales Officer with a copy of the order for appropriate action in the matter.