Inspector General Of Registration To Be Responsible If More Than One Society Is Registered Under Same Name In TC Act: High Court Of Kerala
Citation: WP(C) NO. 29707 OF 2023
Decided On; 20TH DAY OF OCTOBER 2023
Coram: Honourable Mr. Justice Devan Ramachandran
Introduction:
The allegation of the petitioners is that respondents have been allowed to be registered by the District Registrar, Kottayam and Thiruvananthapuram respectively, in the same name of the first among them, even though they obtained such registration much earlier. They allege that the attempt of respondents is to pass over as the first petitioner; and that, therefore, their registrations are now liable to be cancelled.
Facts:
It was submitted that, when societies apply to be registered under the provisions of the Travancore- Cochin Literary, Scientific and Charitable Societies Registration Act (for short ‘TC Act’), the District Registrars can only verify the bye-laws and the purposes of registration and then grant it, if there are no other legal impediments. It was further submitted that the District Registrars, obviously, were not aware that the first petitioner had already been registered; and therefore, that they cannot now do anything,
Petitioner is left with the remedy to approach Inspector General of Registration appropriately, who can then take necessary action under the statutory scheme, though he also will not be able to cancel registrations, which relief can be obtained only under the orders of competent Civil Courts.
Court’s Analysis and Judgement:
Court observed that rima facie, at first blush, this presents a real problem because, if there is no database accessible to the District Registrars, as to whether any other entity has been registered in the same name, then controversies as impelled herein, will keep arising in the future. It is directed to put a proper method to be put in place with respect to societies seeking registration under the “TC Act”; and it is the suggestion of this Court that the competent Authorities must consider collating all information in a proper Database, so that it can be accessed by the respective Registrars in future. This is only a commendation and not a command as court can’t command such action.
The petitioners is directed to move the Inspector General of Registration or the competent Civil Court seeking apposite reliefs against respondents.
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Written by- Sushant Kumar Sharma