IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) MONDAY, THE TWENTIETH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No. 3705 of 2003 Between: Madhugani Mallaiah S/o Pedda Galaiah Surepalli Village, Bhongir Mandal, Nalgonda District. ..... PETITIONER AND The Assistant Director of Fisheries, Nalgonda, Nalgonda District & others. .....RESPONDENTS Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.A.RAMALINGESWARA RAO Counsel for the Respondent: GP FOR FISHERIES THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No. 3705 of 2003 ORDER: This writ petition is ﬁled to direct respondent No.1 to take action under Section 55-A of the A.P. Cooperative Societies Act, 1964, (for short ‘the Act’) against respondent No.4 for ensuring that the amounts belonging to the Society are deposited in its accounts. The petitioner, who appears to be a minority member, approached respondents 1 to 3 with a request to take necessary action under Section 55-A of the Act on the allegation that the Managing Committee of the Society has been squandering money and utilizing the same for their personal purposes. He mentioned that though the ﬁshing activity took place between 22-09-2002 and 25-09- 2002 and an amount of Rs.3,00,000/- was realized by sale of ﬁsh, the same was not credited to the accounts of the Society so far. As no action on the said representation was taken, the petitioner filed the present writ petition. In the counter aﬃdavit ﬁled by respondent No.2, it i s , inter alia, stated that as there is elected Managing Committee, the aﬀairs of the Society are required to be looked after by the said committee. Under Section 55-A(1) of the Act, the Chief Executive Oﬃcer of every society by whatsoever designation he is called and the President of the society, jointly and severally, or the President of such society if there is no such Chief Executive Oﬃcer for such society, shall be bound to keep or cause to maintain signed and authenticated accounts and books relating to that society in such manner as may be prescribed and shall be responsible for the correct and upto date maintenance and authentication of accounts and books and for producing or causing production of the same when called for in connection with audit, inquiry or inspection. Under Sub-section (2), if such accounts and books are not maintained, the Registrar may direct the person who is responsible to bring the accounts and books upto date to make them upto date, and he shall be bound to comply with such direction within the period prescribed therein. The above referred to provision not only makes it incumbent on the persons in the management to keep and maintain accounts and books in a proper manner, but also casts a duty on the Register to issue necessary directions to them to bring the accounts and books upto date. In the face of this mandatory statutory provision, which is intended to prevent misuse of the funds of the Society, the stand taken by respondent No.2, in his counter aﬃdavit, cannot be appreciated. When the very complaint of the petitioner is against the elected management, there is no rationale in respondent No.2 seeking to absolve himself of the statutory responsibility to ensure proper maintenance and upkeep of the accounts and books of the Society. The Writ Petition is, therefore, disposed of with a direction to respondent No.2 to initiate immediate action under Sub-Section 2 of Section 55-A of the Act and give appropriate directions within a period of eight weeks, if not already done. As a sequel to disposal of the writ petition, WPMP.Nos.4879 of 2003 and 15431 of 2005 are disposed of as infructuous. _________________________ C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY,J Date:20-10-2008 usd