Patna High Court: The Division Bench of Amreshwar Pratap Sahi, CJ and Anjana Mishra, J. rejected an appeal challenging an order whereby the learned Single Judge declined to entertain a petition filed against the order of District Co-operative Officer.
In the instant case, the District Co-operative Officer had passed an order in a surcharge proceeding arising under Section 40 of the Bihar Cooperative Societies Act, 1935. The said order was challenged by the appellant herein by filing a writ petition before the court. This petition was dismissed on the ground of availability of alternative remedy of appeal under Section 40 (3) of the Act.
Contention on behalf of the appellant was that the District Co-operative Officer is not a Registrar within the meaning of the Act; and since the Act provides for a remedy to appeal against the decision of a Registrar only, therefore the petition filed by him ought to have been entertained.
Whereas respondent submitted that notification dated 26-12-2008 issued under Section 6 of the Act, empowers District Co-operative Officer to exercise powers of a Registrar under the Act except in relation to Central Co-operative Banks.
The Court noted that since appellant was not a Central Cooperative Bank, therefore the District Co-operative Officer did have the jurisdiction to proceed in the matter, and his order could be challenged only by way of an appeal filed under the Act. In view thereof, there was no infirmity in the impugned order. [Raj Kumar Sharma v. State of Bihar, 2019 SCC OnLine Pat 147, Order dated 29-01-2019]