THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No.3270 of 2010 %15.11.2010 # Smt.Purandeswari Lift Irrigation Mutually Aided Cooperative Society Limited ...PETITIONER VERSUS $ The District Cooperative Officer/Registrar of Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies, Ongole, Prakasam District and others ...RESPONDENTS < GIST: > HEAD NOTE: !Counsel for Petitioner: Sri Raja Reddy Koneti ^ Counsel for Respondent No.1: GP for Cooperation Counsel for Respondent Nos.2 to 6: Sri Subba Rao Korrapati ? Cases referred 1. AIR 1957 SC 912 2. AIR 1961 SC 751 3. AIR 1961 SC 1480 THE HON'BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION No.3270 of 2010 Date: 15.11.2010 Between: Smt.Purandeswari Lift Irrigation Mutually Aided Cooperative Society Limited ..... Petitioner AND The District Cooperative Officer/Registrar of Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies, Ongole, Prakasam District and others .....Respondents Counsel for the Petitioner: Raja Reddy Koneti Counsel for Respondent No.1: GP for Cooperation Counsel for Respondent Nos.2 to 6: Sri Subba Rao Korrapati The Court made the following: ORDER: At the interlocutory stage, the writ petition is taken up for hearing and disposal with the consent of the learned counsel for the parties. The petitioner is a Mutually Aided Cooperative Society registered under the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Mutually Aided Cooperative Societies Act, 1995 (for short ‘the Act’). Seven of the Managing Committee Members and 46 members of the petitioner- Society have filed petitions, dated 18.06.2009 and 02.07.2009, to respondent No.1 with the grievance that the Chairman of the petitioner- Society has not been holding elections. Respondent No.1 obviously finding certain alleged lapses on the part of the management has ordered for an inquiry to be held into the affairs of the petitioner- Society. It is not in dispute that the inquiry was completed by the Inquiry Officer and a report was submitted to respondent No.1 on 16.10.2009. Thereafter, respondent No.1 issued notice, dated 02.02.2010, whereby he has directed the petitioner to convene General Body Meeting on 19.02.2010, to discuss various lapses allegedly committed by the Chairman of the petitioner-Society. This notice is assailed in this writ petition. An application for impleadment of five of the members of the petitioner-Society was filed. The said application has been ordered by a separate order. Respondent No.1, apart from filing counter affidavit, has filed a vacate stay application. When these applications came up for hearing, the writ petition itself is taken up for hearing. At the hearing, Sri Raja Reddy Koneti, learned counsel for the petitioner, submitted that a copy of the inquiry report was not sent to the Society within one month of submission of report by the Inquiry Officer as envisaged under Section 29(5) of the Act and that therefore, the impugned notice is vitiated. The learned counsel further submitted that respondent No.1 has exceeded his jurisdiction by directing that notices shall be issued for the proposed General Body Meeting even to the persons who were members at the time of registration of the Society, but ceased to be so thereafter. The learned Government Pleader for Cooperation, while reiterating the averments contained in the counter affidavit, has stated that respondent No.1 has not supplied the inquiry report within the time stipulated and that on 28.01.2009, the Chairman was asked to pay Rs.226/- as charges towards supply of report and that even though the said payment has not been made, the report was nevertheless supplied to the Chairman. As regards the first contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner, under sub-section (5) of Section 29 of the Act, the Registrar shall communicate the report of the inquiry inter alia to the Cooperative Society concerned within a period of 30 days from the date of completion of the inquiry. Concededly, in the instant case, the inquiry report was not communicated within the stipulated time. The question, therefore, is whether non-furnishing of the inquiry report leads to lapse of the whole inquiry proceedings? No doubt, this Court is conscious of the phrase ‘shall’ in sub- section (5) of Section 29 of the Act. However, the settled legal position regarding interpretation of statute is that the use of word ‘shall’ raises a presumption that the particular provision is imperative, but this prima facie inference may be rebutted by other considerations such as object and scope of the enactment and the consequences flowing from such construction [State of Uttar Pradesh v. Monbodhan Lal Srivastava[1], State of Uttar Pradesh and others v. Babu Ram Upadhya[2]]. In M/s.Sainik Motors, Jodhpur and others v. State of Rajasthan[3], the Supreme Court held that the word ‘shall’ is ordinarily mandatory but it is sometimes not so interpreted if the context or the intention otherwise demands. A careful analysis of Section 29(5) of the Act would disclose that it has not provided the consequence that the proceedings lapse for non-supply of report within the stipulated time unlike sub-section (4) of Section 29 of the Act. Moreover, having regard to the purpose for which the inquiry is envisaged under the Act, interpretation of phrase ‘shall’ as mandatory would frustrate the purpose and object for which the inquiry is envisaged. Therefore, in my opinion, the said word shall be read as directory and not as mandatory. Consequently, I hold that non-supply of report within the stipulated period would not automatically result in lapse of the inquiry proceedings, unlike in the case of non-completion of inquiry as envisaged under sub-section (4) of Section 29 of the Act. On the question of supply of report, the learned Government Pleader has orally stated that a copy of the report was supplied to the Chairman of the petitioner-Society. The learned counsel for the petitioner, however, stated that he has no instructions on this aspect. In the absence of any specific averment raised in the counter affidavit on the supply of Inquiry report, I am of the opinion that in the interests of justice, respondent No.1 shall supply a copy of the inquiry report to the Chairman of the petitioner-Society within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order, without charging any fees. With regard to the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner that respondent No.1 was not justified in directing that notices should be issued to the persons who were members at the time of registration of the Society, but ceased to be so thereafter, I find force in the said contention. Section 31(a) of the Act contemplates that respondent No.1 can direct the Board to convene a General Body Meeting. It cannot be disputed that the General Body comprises the persons who are members at the time of convening the meeting. Unless the persons who were members at the time of registration of the Society continued to be members, they are not entitled to any notice or participate in the General Body Meeting. To this extent, the impugned notice cannot be sustained and the same is accordingly declared as invalid. In the result, the writ petition is partly allowed by directing respondent No.1 to supply a copy of the inquiry report to the petitioner- Society within a period of two weeks from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. The petitioner is not liable to send notices to the persons who do not constitute the General Body of the petitioner-Society. Respondent No.1 shall be free to fix the date for holding the General Body Meeting, after supply of inquiry report. As a sequel to disposal of the writ petition, the interim order, dated 18.02.2010, granted in W.P.M.P.No.4302 of 2010, is vacated and W.P.M.P.No.4302 of 2010 and W.V.M.P.No.1686 of 2010 are disposed of as infructuous. C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY, J Dt.15.11.2010 Note: LR copies to be marked. (b/o) VGB [1] AIR 1957 SC 912 [2] AIR 1961 SC 751 [3] AIR 1961 SC 1480