1993 PLP (C (PLC(CS))

Petitioner, former Secretary, Cooperatives Department, Government of the Punjab, having been subjected to disciplinay proceedings by the authority with Chief Secretary, Government of the Punjab as the authorised officer and enquiry committee comprising Asad Ali Shah, the then Member, Board of Revenue, Akhtar Saeed Member (Judicial) and. Malik Muhammad Jehangir, Member (Consolidation), Board of Revenue, for the alleged availing of loans from various Cooperatives Finance Institutions/Corporations in his own name as well as in the name of his close relatives and associates, misusing official authority viz. (A) Loans from Services Cooperative Credit Corporation Limited: (i) Advanced to the petitioner‑‑Rs.1,75,37,191. (ii) Resource International owned by petitioner's brother‑in‑law Shahzad Khalil‑‑Rs.94,97,330. (B) Loans from Habib Industrial Cooperative Corporation Limited in the name of:‑ (i) Resource International‑‑Rs.73,87,914. (ii) Abdul Razzaq (Internal Auditor of Resource International)‑‑ Rs.17,39,165. (C) Transfer of funds belonging to Ravian Cooperative Housing Society to Punja Textile and Industrial Cooperative Society of which petitioner's brother‑in‑law Shahzad Khalil being the Chief Executive‑ Rs.2,15,00,

000. Culminating into show‑cause notice from the authorised officer dated 14‑1‑1992 requiring the petitioner to show cause as to why one of the major penalties contemplated by rule 4(1)(b) of the Government Servants (E&D) Rules, 1973 should not be imposed, had a recourse to civil suit inter alia against the former Corporation dated 6‑4‑1991 with quadruple prayers viz., seeking a declaration that the alleged loans be treated as sham transaction; cancellation of the instruments pertaining thereto; restraining Services Cooperative Credit Corporation Limited from initiating proceedings before the Registrar, Cooperatives on the basis of the instruments referred to supra and asserting claim for the recovery of money allegedly due from partnership business, wherein, the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Punjab has also sought impleadment, during pendency whereof Deputy Registrar Cooperatives Lahore Division on 11‑11‑1991 served the petitioner with a notice under section 5(1) of the Punjab Cooperative Societies & Cooperative Banks (Repayment of Loans) Ordinance, 1966 requiring him to repay and secure the loan/liabilities of Rs.2,82,63,005 due to the Services Cooperative Credit Corporation Limited as contemplated by section 7 of the Ordinance ibid in the following terms: "(a) Secure within thirty days of the service of this notice the loan or the liability arising there from by mortgage, pledge, hypothecation or assignment of such property as the undersigned may think adequate. (b) Repay at least twenty‑five per cent of the loan within sixty days of the service of this Notice. (c) Repay the balance of the loan in fifteen months in five equal quarterly instalments, the first installment being due three months after the expiry of the period specified in clause (b). (d) In case you do not admit your above‑noted liability, you should file written statement to this effect within 30 days from the receipt of this notice before the undersigned for decision as required under section 6 of the said Ordinance." Pending adjudication thereof, present petition has been resorted to contending that petitioner has been exposed to the rigours of these proceedings at the behest of the sitting Chief Secretary on account of personal vendetta; proceedings before the Deputy Registrar are coram non judice and void due to lack of jurisdictional fact i.e. determination as to insufficiency of the securities of the alleged loans should have preceded the complained of exercise; section 6 of the Ordinance ibid is not attracted to the circumstances of the case and has been erroneously pressed into service in a gross discriminatory fashion opting out of the regular recovery procedure conceived by the Ordinance, and, lastly, in view of the Chief Secretary's findings as authorised officer in the disciplinary proceedings, the Deputy Registrar Cooperatives will not be a free agent to apply independent mind; wherein I am not inclined to interfere because not only the alleged bias of the Chief Secretary being sheet‑anchor of the arguments doesn't find a mention in the pleadings but also the alleged grievance can be ventilated before the statutory functionary before whom all the lego‑factual contentions can be urged whose findings would be amenable to revision before the competent authority and in the event of his concurrence, Constitutional remedy could be availed of; any interference at this juncture specially when premise of the controversy patently pertains to the realm of facts would tantamount to denying the statutory authority's right to probe into the matter which still appears to be in its infancy thus suffers from pre maturity; furthermore, visualizing the spectrum of events the petition seems to have been ventured upon with a view to deferring the matter indefinitely beyond the visible horizon of comprehension tending to peg its fate to the civil suit devised as an interjection between the disciplinary proceedings and the recovery process. Accordingly, the same is hereby dismissed in limine. A.A./J‑34/L Petition dismissed.