Ram Lakhan Pathak vs District Assistant Registrar, Co-operative Societies and Others

R.A. Sharma, J.—Petitioner, who was an employee of Hindustan Commercial Bank, retired in 1978 from service on attaining the age of 60 years. Thereafter he was appointed as Secretary of Bank Karmachari Co-operative Credit Society, Birhana Road, Kanpur on a fixed honorarium of Rs. 500 per month. By order dated 20.12.1983, he was suspended on account of certain charges of misconduct. Being aggrieved by it, he filed this writ petition in 1990.

Learned Counsel for the Respondent No. 3 has raised a preliminary objection to the effect that this writ petition is not maintainable, because of the fact that the co-operative society of which the petitioner was the Secretary was not a statutory authority and there was no statutory rules and regulations governing his condition of service. Learned Counsel for the petitioner has stated that the Petitioner�s society is a central society and, therefore, the conditions of service of its employees are governed by statutory regulation. This contention of the learned Counsel is devoid of merit.

''Central society'' has been defined by Section 2(d-1) of the U.P. Cooperative Societies Act (hereinafter referred to as the Act), according to which ''central society'' of central co-operative society means a "co-operative society, which has any co-operative society as its ordinary member and is not a primary co-operative society." One of the essential conditions of the central society is that any other co-operative society should be its ordinary member. There is neither any averment in the writ petition and the rejoinder affidavit that the Petitioner�s society is a central society nor is there anything on the record to show that the conditions of service of the petitioner are governed by statutory rules and regulations. Reliance by the learned Counsel for the petitioner on paragraph 4 on the counter-affidavit can be of no assistance to him, because this paragraph also does not contain any such allegation. On the other hand, in paragraph 5 of the counter-affidavit, it is specifically mentioned that the Petitioner�s society is a private body. Full Bench of this Court in Radha Charan Sharma v. U.P. Co-operative Federation 1982 ALR 342 , has held that cooperative society is not an authority within the meaning of Article 12 of the Constitution unless it is an instrumentality of the State. In the instant case, there is nothing on the record to establish that the Petitioner�s society is the instrumentality of the State. In Aley Ahmad Abidi Vs. Dist. Inspector of Schools, Allahabad and Others, , it has been laid down that even a person or society will be amenable to the writ jurisdiction under Article 226 of the Constitution. If it exercises any statutory power or discharges statutory duties. In the instant case, that is also not the position. The preliminary objection raised by the learned Counsel for the Respondent, is therefore, liable to be accepted.

For the reasons given above, this writ petition is dismissed as not maintainable. There shall be no order as to costs.