Civil Writ Petition No. 11592 of 2009 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Civil Writ Petition No. 11592 of 2009 Date of decision : 10.05.2010 Surjit Singh ....Petitioner V/s State of Punjab and others ....Respondents BEFORE : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE RAJAN GUPTA Present: Mr. I.S. Saggu, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. J.S. Puri, Additional Advocate General, Punjab. Mr. Ashwani Prashar, Advocate for respondent No. 4. RAJAN GUPTA J. (ORAL) The only grievance of the petitioner in the instant writ petition is that before finalization of zones for election to Gurdaspur District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd., zones were not correctly framed as the number of Societies were not proportionately distributed amongst the zones. Learned counsel for the petitioner thus prays that zonal lists prepared vide orders Annexures P-1 to P-12 be quashed. Learned counsel appearing for the State of Punjab submits at the outset that the petitioner has alternative remedy available to him in view of Section 55/56 of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961 (hereinafter called as 'Act') as also guideline 4.7 dated 11.12.2000 issued by the Registrar, which according to him has statutory force. Mr. Prashar, learned counsel appearing for respondent No. 4 has made a statement in similar terms as the State counsel and submits that Civil Writ Petition No. 11592 of 2009 2 he has no objection if the parties are relegated to the remedy of Section 55/56 of the Act for decision of the controversy. I have heard counsel for the parties and given careful thought to the facts of the case. Guideline 4.7 regarding formation of zones has been reproduced in para 6 of the writ petition reads as follows:- “ 4.7 The zones approved by the Registrar should be final and no appeal under Section 68 of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act, 1961 lies against such an order of the Registrar. Any dispute with regard to formation of zones can possibly be raised by the shareholder or a member of the cooperative society only through a reference of election dispute under section 55/56 of the Act, ibid and the Rules made thereunder.” Learned counsel for the parties are agreed that aforesaid guideline have statutory force in view of judgment delivered by this court in Civil Writ Petition No. 6694 of 2007 titled as Surinder Singh Vs. State of Punjab and others. There is already an affidavit of the Registrar Cooperative Societies on record according to which any dispute with regard to formation of zones can be entertained by the Registrar even prior to holding of elections. The relevant para of the affidavit filed by Sh. G. Vajralingam, Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Punjab reads thus:- “4. That as per Para 4.7 of the above said guidelines, any share holder/member is free to raise any dispute under Section 55/56 of the Punjab Cooperative Societies Act before the competent Authority i.e. Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Punjab regarding the formulation of zones prior to holding of the election.” In view of the stand taken by learned counsel for the parties Civil Writ Petition No. 11592 of 2009 3 before this court and in view of guideline 4.7 issued by Registrar this court relegates the petitioner to remedy available to him under section 55/56 of the Act. In case any application in reference to dispute is made in accordance with Appendix-F of the Rules within a period of 10 days of receipt of certified copy of this order, the Registrar shall endeavor to decide the same within one month, thereafter. Parties shall be at liberty to raise all their pleas before the Registrar including any prayer for stay of the election during the pendency of reference before the said authority. Disposed of in aforesaid terms. May 10, 2010 (RAJAN GUPTA) Ajay JUDGE