IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE, ANDHRA PRADESH AT HYDERABAD (Special Original Jurisdiction) WEDNESDAY, THE FIFTEENTH DAY OF OCTOBER TWO THOUSAND AND EIGHT PRESENT THE HON'BLE MR JUSTICE C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY WRIT PETITION NO : 15570 of 2002 Between: Chekka Srinivas, S/o Yadaiah, The Fishermen Co-operative Society, Pochampally Mandal, Nalgonda District. ..... PETITIONER AND 1. Fisheries Department, Rep. by its Secretary, The Government of Andhra Pradesh, Secretariat, Hyderabad. 2. The Commissioner of Fisheries, Ex-Officio Registrar of Co- op Societies, Hyderabad. Andhra Pradesh. 3. The Regional Dy. Director of Fisheries, Zone-VI, Hyderabad. 4. The District Collector, Nalgonda, Nalgonda District. 5. The Asst.Director of Fisheries/Ex-Officio Deputy Registrar of Co-op. Societies, Nalgonda District. 6. The Divisional Coop. Officer, Bhuvanagiri, Nalgonda District. 7. The District Panchayat Officer, Nalgonda District. 8. The Fisheries Development Officer, Bhuvanagiri, Nalgonda District. 9. Sri Mandala Krishnaiah, Chief Promoter of proposed Fishermen Coop.Society, Ramalingampally Village, Pochampally Mandal, Nalgonda District. .....RESPONDENTS Counsel for the Petitioner:MR.V.AJAY KUMAR Counsel for the Respondents: AGP FOR FISHERIES FOR R1 TO R5, NONE APPEARED FOR R6 TO R9 The Court made the following : ORDER: This writ petition is ﬁled for a Writ of Certiorari to quash orders dated 06.06.2001 and 07.05.2002 passed by respondent Nos.5 and 2 respectively. 2. The petitioner had in its area of operation three tanks, which included Ramalingampalli Kunta. The said tank was taken out of the area of operation of the petitioner Society and a new Fishermen Cooperative Society was constituted. Questioning the said action, the petitioner ﬁled W.P.No.24926 of 2001 along two other writ petitions. The said writ petition was disposed of by this Court, without going into the merits, on the ground that the petitioner had an alternative remedy of appeal under Section 76(2) of the Andhra Pradesh Co-operative Societies Act, 1964 (for short ‘the Act’). Accordingly, the petitioner ﬁled a purported appeal before respondent No.2, which was dismissed by his order dated 07.05.2002 on the ground that the appeal was time barred. 3. Having carefully considered the submissions of Sri V.Ajay Kumar, learned counsel for the petitioner, and perused the record, I am of the view that the order passed by respondent No.2 is not sustainable. An order passed dividing a Society and transferring its area of operation is not subject matter of an appeal under Section 76 of the Act. Therefore, no appeal lies to respondent No.2 under Section 76 of the Act. However, under Section 77 of the Act, a Revision is maintainable before respondent No.2 in respect of any proceeding, which cannot be subject matter of an appeal under Section 76 of the Act. Though this Court permitted the petitioner to avail the remedy of appeal under Section 76(2) of the Act, the said observation ought to have been understood in the light of the scheme of the Act, as explained above, and respondent No.2 ought to have treated the appeal ﬁled by the petitioner as a revision under Section 77 of the Act. 4. Learned counsel for the petitioner stated that when once the petitioner was permitted to pursue the alternative remedy, respondent No.2 ought not to have thrown out the appeal/revision, on the ground of delay. I ﬁnd force in the contention of the learned counsel for the petitioner. Though the petitioner has not ﬁled a formal application for condonation of delay, respondent No.2 ought to have adjudicated the case on merits, as it is implied from the order of this Court, which declined to adjudicate the case on merits and instead relegated the petitioner to avail alternative remedy that respondent No.2 should decide the case on merits. 5. In this view of the matter, the writ petition is disposed of with a direction to respondent No.2 to decide the appeal filed by the petitioner on merits under Section 77 of the Act by treating the same as revision. _______________________ C.V.NAGARJUNA REDDY,J 15.10.2008 v v