CWP No.18696 of 2009 -1- IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH CWP No.18696 of 2009 Date of decision : 09-08-2010 Phool Singh .... Petitioner VERSUS State of Haryana and others ....Respondents CORAM:- HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA Present: Mr. Sanjiv Gupta, Advocate, for the petitioner. Mr. Amit Goyal, AAG, Haryana, for respondent No.1. Mr. Parmod Parwar, Advocate, for Mr. Pardeep Solath, Advocate, for respondent No.2. Mr. Surinder Singh Dalal, Advocate, for respondent No.3. Mr. Vijay Sharma, Advocate, for respondent No.5. KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA, J. (Oral) The present writ petition has been filed with a prayer for issuance of a writ in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents to release the title deeds/legal documents of the petitioner in view of the award dated 01.04.2003 (Annexure P-1) passed by the Assistant Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Hisar. Before this prayer is entertained, it will be necessary to give brief facts of the case. Petitioner Phool Singh obtained a loan of Rs.1,00,000/- in the year 1993-94 from Haryana State Cooperative Housing CWP No.18696 of 2009 -2- Federation Limited through The Hisar Cooperative Credit and Services Society Limited which was later merged with The Hisar National Cooperative Housing Building Society Limited, Hisar. Petitioner regularly paid instalments to the Incharge of the Society through whom loan was disbursed. Upto 18.12.1998 petitioner had paid the entire amount of the loan amounting to Rs.2,23,323/-. Later on it revealed that Incharge of the Society through whom the loan was disbursed had issued the receipts but had not deposited the amount of instalments paid in the accounts of the Society. Due to the dispute, under the provisions of the Haryana Cooperative Societies Act, 1984, petitioner sought arbitration. Assistant Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Hisar acting as Arbitrator gave his Award (Annexure P-1). In the Award, it was stated that Ishwar Singh was Incharge of the Society at the relevant time. He had issued the receipts under the seal of the Society but had not deposited the amount in the accounts of the Society. Therefore, it was held that petitioner was not at fault. The conclusion of the award reads as under:- “Hence, I Dhoop Singh Nain, Assistant Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Hisar exercising the powers under Section 102/103 of the Haryana Cooperative Societies Act, 1984 after conducting the procedural hearing, perusing the receipts and after hearing the arguments, counter- arguments and understanding all the things, I hereby gave decision that Sh. Ishwar Singh son of Gulab Singh i.e. respondent no.1 will deposit the amount of Rs.190351/- of the disputed receipts alongwith the prescribed rate of interest of Housing Federation within two months with CWP No.18696 of 2009 -3- respondent no.2. Respondent no.2 Society is also directed that the amount mentioned in the disputed receipts may deposit in the loan account of Sh. Phool Singh on the same date on which dates the receipts have been issued. In case of not depositing the amount by respondent no.1 as per aforesaid decision, respondent no.2 Society has right that after arresting him or can auction his movable or immovable property as per rules. The decision has been pronounced in the open court in the absence of respondent no.1. Copy of the decision may be sent separately to respondent no.1.” A perusal of the decision of the Arbitrator reveals that it was held that the amount is to be recovered from Ishwar Singh Incharge of the Society who had disbursed the loan and later received the amount from the petitioner. Since he was an employee, the employer Society could not escape the vicarious liability. The right of recovery was vested in the Society to recover the amount from its employees. Furthermore a direction was given that respondent No.2 – Society (The Hisar National Cooperative Housing Development Society Limited, Hisar) shall deposit the amount of loan in the account of Phool Singh – petitioner for which its employee had issued a receipts. It was for the Society to initiate coercive method to recover the amount from Ishwar Singh. So far as the award is concerned, the Society was given direction to deposit the amount in the account of the loanee at first instance. It is stated that a common man who obtained a loan and paid the amount to the employee of the Society had to run from pillar to post for settling his account. Having succeeded in the litigation by passing of Award (Annexure P-1) in the CWP No.18696 of 2009 -4- year 2003, still the Society has not honoured the Award. It is stated that on the amount which was paid to Ishwar Singh still interest has also accrued and the amount has increased to manifolds and as on today the loan amount is Rs.5,64,242/-. It is a sorry state of affair that a poor person, who obtained a loan of Rs.1,00,000/- and had paid Rs.2,23,323/-, is still held liable to pay Rs.5,64,242/-. This has occurred due to non-performance of the duty on the part of the society. Thus, present writ petition is allowed. Title deeds/legal documents shall be released forthwith to the petitioner. The society shall pay the amount on behalf of the petitioner to respondent No.2 within three months with liberty to recover the same from its ex- employee Ishwar Singh. (KANWALJIT SINGH AHLUWALIA) 09-08-2010 JUDGE manju