2023 PLP 1516 (CLC)

SHAMS MEHMOOD MIRZA, J.

This writ petition calls into question order dated 14.10.2020 passed by Registrar Cooperative Societies/respondent No.3 whereby the order of the petitioner society terminating the services of respondent No.1 as Incharge Parks and Horticulture Authority was set aside. The petitioner also challenges the jurisdiction of respondent No.3 to entertain the application for arbitration under section 54 of the Cooperative Societies Act, 1925 (the Act) filed by respondent No.1.

2. Learned counsel submits that respondent No.3 had no jurisdiction to pass any order in favour of respondent No.1 who was an employee of the petitioner society. It is furthermore submitted that respondent No.3 could not have entertained the arbitration application filed under section 54 of the Act agitating service matter of an employee of the petitioner. In this regard, reliance was placed on the judgment reported as Ch. Nazir Ahmad v. Agha Ahmed Raza Khan and others 1971 SCMR 305.

3. Learned counsel for respondent No.1 submits that a petition under section 54 of the Act was filed which was admitted for adjudication and the parties were directed to nominate their arbitrators. In the said proceedings, the orders of the petitioner regarding termination of respondent No.1 were set aside by way of interim relief on 08.09.2018. It was this order which was challenged in appeal by the petitioner before the Registrar Cooperative Societies. Respondent No.3 dismissed the appeal of the petitioner and upheld order dated 08.09.2018.

4. Arguments heard, record perused.

5. The Deputy Registrar Cooperatives on 08.09.2018 passed the order temporarily suspending the operation of the termination order of respondent No.1. Notice dated 11.09.2018 was issued to the petitioner for nominating the Arbitrator. It is apparent that petitioner has mistakenly mentioned the date of notice in the appeal filed before the Registrar and that in fact it was impugning order dated 08.09.2018 passed by the Deputy Registrar Cooperative Societies.

6. The case law (1971 SCMR 305) cited by the learned counsel for the petitioner is fully applicable to the facts of the present case. In that case, the sub-accountant of a Cooperative Society brought under challenge service matters before the Registrar Cooperatives which were referred to arbitration and award was passed thereon. The Hon'ble Supreme Court came to the conclusion that the expression "touching the business of society" as contained in section 54 of the Act did not cover the service matters between the employee and the Cooperative Society. It is, therefore, clear that the petition under section 54 of the Act filed by respondent No.1 before the Registrar Cooperatives was not maintainable.

7. Learned counsel for the petitioner also objected to the maintainability of the present writ petition for the reason that the president of the petitioner society had already resigned prior to the filing of this writ petition. It was furthermore submitted that administrator has been appointed by the Registrar Cooperative Societies through order dated 12.03.2021. This stance of the petitioner is not tenable in as much as the present petition was filed on 10.03.2021 prior to the appointment of the Administrator.

8. In the result this writ petition is allowed and it is declared that the petition under section 54 of the Act filed by respondent No.1 before the Registrar Cooperative Societies was not maintainable. All the subsequent orders passed in the proceedings initiated pursuant to the said petition are nullity in the eyes of law including order dated 14.10.2020 passed by Registrar Cooperative Societies in the appeal of the petitioner and are accordingly set aside. SA/S-49/L Petition allowed.