S.C.V. Gopal, Chief Promoter, Tamil Nadu Road Transport Financing Co-operative Society Limited vs The Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies and Others

Veeraswami, C.J.—The petition comes before us because Palaniswamy, J., found that he could not agree with Kailasam, J., in Sami Rao v.

The Registrar of Co-operative Societies W.P.No. 113 of 1966. on the effect of the second proviso to Section 27 (1) of the Tamil Nadu Co-

operative Societies Act, 1953, read with the relative bye-laws. The petitioner claims to be the promoter of Tamil Nadu Road Transport Financing

Co-operative Society Ltd., Madras. He seeks to quash the order of the Joint Registrar of Co-operative Societies, dated 14th March, 1970 by

which he nominated eight persons as members of a committee of management for the society. The society was promoted by the petitioner and nine

others. Out of the eight persons, five are non-members, of whom one is the Deputy Registrar, for whose inclusion there is no objection. The Joint

Registrar in nominating the members of the committee acted in exercise of his power under the second proviso to Section 27 (1) of the Act read

With bye-law 20 of the bye-laws of the society. Section 27 (1) relates to the appointment of committees. The general body of a registered society

shall constitute a committee in accordance with the bye-laws and entrust the management of the affairs of the registered society to such committee.

By the first proviso power is given to those persons who have signed the application to register the society to appoint a committee to conduct the

affairs for a period of three months from the date of registration of the society, or for such further period as the Registrar may consider necessary.

The committee so appointed shall however cease to function as soon as a committee has been constituted in accordance with the bye-laws. Then

comes the second proviso which has provided further that where the bye-laws so provide, the Government or the Registrar may nominate all or

any of the members of the committee for such period as may be specified in the by-laws. Bye-law 20, relates to the constitution of the committee

and this bye-law contains the transitory bye-law which is:

Notwithstanding any (sic) contained in these by-laws, the first set of the members of the Committee including the President and Vice-President

may be nominated by the Registrar for a period of 3 years, which if found necessary may be extended to a further period, of three years at the

discretion of the Registrar. Such nomination may at the discretion of the Registrar, be made for a period of one year or such shorter period as may

be found necessary at a time.

The contention of the petitioner is that the said, proviso as also the transitory bye-law read with the general tenor and scheme of the entire Act

would indicate that nomination to the committee of non-members is not contemplated. It was on this question Palaniswami, J., and Kailasam. J.,

have differed.

A registered society is defined to mean a society registered or deemed to be registered under the Act. Section 4 (1) indicates that a society

may be registered with the co-operative principles kept in view and it contemplates members forming the society. A committee is defined to mean

the governing body of a registered society to whom the management of its affairs is entrusted and a member means a person joining in the

application for the registration of a society and a person admitted to membership after registration in accordance with the Act, the rules and the

bye-laws and the expression includes a nominal and an associate member. The bye-laws of the society too contemplate election of the members of

the committee. Section 28 (1) speaks of disqualifications for membership of committee. The first proviso to Section 27 (1) relates to appointment

and the second proviso provides for nomination. On a reading of these provisos and the bye-law in a harmonious way, we are inclined to think that

it is not the intention of the provisos that the power of nomination should be limited only to members. As a matter of fact, the proviso does not

contain any words of limitation. Equally the transitory bye-law framed under bye-law 20, which we have set out above, is also not indicative that

only members can be appointed to the committee.

It is vehemently contended for the petitioner that he being one of the signatories to the application for registration of the society, he would never

have asked for forming the society if he had known that the transitory committee would be manned by non-members. This argument does not take

us anywhere. What matters is not the intention of the petitioner, or what he would have done in certain circumstances. We are here concerned with

the language of the second proviso to Section 27 (1). The committee being purely of a transitory character and, therefore, could be formed at the

initial stage of the formation of a society. It may be that in a given case, there may not be enough number of members out of whom a committee

could be formed. It may be for this reason, the second proviso to Section 27 (1) and also the transitory bye-law aforesaid, do not specifically

direct that the nomination to the transitory committee could only be from members of the society.

But this petition has been pending in this Court since 1970. A transitory committee is not expected to survive that long. As a result of stay

granted by this Court, we are told that the committee never came into existence, or if it came into existence, it never operated. That being so, we

think it would suffice if we direct that the committee nominated by the Registrar will not be allowed to function, but instead a committee will be

brought into existence in accordance with the by-laws and the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Go-operative Societies Act. In bringing into existence

a fresh committee of management, due notice should necessarily have to be taken of the fact that even at the time of the registration of the society,

there were as many as 150 members, or even more, and the fact that the society is expected to function on the principles of co-operation, which

include representation. Subject to these observations, the petition is dismissed. No costs.