Inspection rights cannot be nullified by regulation, but copying minutes is not implied unless needed to make inspection effective.

A contractual right of members to inspect an association's minute book cannot be converted into a discretionary privilege by subordinate rules; a power to regulate inspection only permits orderly access and cannot destroy the substantive right or prohibit copies and notes where the underlying article preserves inspection. At the same time, a right to inspect does not automatically include a separate right to take copies: copying arises only if it is necessary to make inspection effective. The text treats the impugned rules as ultra vires and rejects any implied copying entitlement beyond any existing common law position.

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Issues: (i) Whether the rules framed by the Association could validly make inspection of the minute book subject to the Committee's discretion and prohibit members from taking copies or notes; (ii) whether the plaintiffs, as members, had an enforceable right to take copies of the minutes either under the Articles or by implication from their inspection right.

Issue (i): Whether the rules framed by the Association could validly make inspection of the minute book subject to the Committee's discretion and prohibit members from taking copies or notes.

Analysis: The Article gave members a contractual right to inspect the Committee's proceedings, subject only to regulations made to regulate that right. A regulation power cannot be used to destroy the substantive right itself or convert it into a right dependent on the Committee's approval. A rule that placed inspection wholly within discretion, or absolutely forbade copying, went beyond regulation and altered the bargain embodied in the Article.

Conclusion: The impugned rules were ultra vires and invalid.

Issue (ii): Whether the plaintiffs, as members, had an enforceable right to take copies of the minutes either under the Articles or by implication from their inspection right.

Analysis: A right to inspect does not of itself carry an automatic right to copy. The Court distinguished cases where copying was implied because inspection without copying would be practically useless, and held that here the plaintiffs' common law protection was sufficient. The Articles were sensible and operative without implying an additional copying right, and there was no necessity to add such a term to the contract between the Association and its members under Section 21 of the Companies Act.

Conclusion: The plaintiffs had no enforceable right to take copies of the minutes beyond whatever common law entitlement might otherwise exist.

Final Conclusion: The plaintiffs succeeded only in establishing that the restrictive rules were invalid, but they failed to establish any substantive entitlement to copy the minutes, so the suit failed and was dismissed with costs.

Ratio Decidendi: A power to regulate a contractual right of inspection cannot be used to abrogate that right, and a right of inspection does not imply a right to take copies unless copying is necessary to make the inspection right effective.

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