TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
TaxTMI 
1989 (9) TMI 393
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.... petitioner in 1929 Lahore Congress under the leadership of Mahatma Gandhi adopted a resolution for the spread of Hindi as the common language for the whole of India with a view to promote national integrity and in pursuance of this resolution institutions for the spread and prachar of Hindi in the non-Hindi areas were established. First of this kind was established in Madras city in the name of Dakshin Bharat Hindi Prachar Samiti then in Wardha for the development and spread of Hindi in the rest of India. Late Baba Raghab Das a devoted disciple of Gandhiji undertook the task of spreading Hindi in the North Eastern part of India and in 1934 eminent local leaders of this region late Tarun Ram Phukan, late Nabin Chandra Bardaloi, late Gopinath Bardaloi, late Krishna Nath Sarma and others joined Baba Raghab Das and the first institution named Asom Hindi Prachar Samiti was formed on 3-11-1938 at Gauhati with late Gopinath Bardaloi the first Chief Minister of Assam under the 1935 Act as its President. In 1948 Asom Hindi Prachar Samiti was renamed as Asom Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti with its head office at Gauhati. 3. It is this Asom Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti, Petitioner 1, which is....
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....ery inception had acquired assets and properties and the assets and properties at the time of the filing of the petition were stated to be: 1. Buildings ₹ 70,64,000.00 2. Printing press with machines and accessories ₹ 15,00,000.00 3. Furniture fixture ₹ 3,00,000.00 4. Two portraits ₹ 10,000.00 5. Vehicle ₹ 35,000.00 6. Typewriting schools including machines and furnitures ₹ 60,000.00 7. Iron safe ₹ 30,000.00 8. Compound fixing (leasedlas) ₹ 30,000.00 9. Bank deposits ₹ 3,43,000.00 10. Security deposit with Ashok Paper Mill Ltd. ₹ 30,000.00 11. Shares of Assam Coop-apex Bank Ltd. ₹ 5,000.00 12. Stock of printing papers and stationeries ₹ 50,000.00 13. Stock of text books ₹ 22,00,000.00 14. Misc. articles including utensils ₹ 50,00,000.00 15. Building materials ₹ 25,00,000.00 16. Central library ₹ 10,00,000.00 17. Value of the old books ₹ 3,00,000.00 TOTAL 2,04,57,000.00 5. According to the Bidhan of the Samiti the management and administration of the Samiti is run by elected bodies namely Byabasthapika Sabha (meaning the General Council) and the....
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....erences contained in the Bidhan be also accordingly amended. This amendment shall come into force from today the 17-7-1983." That the said resolution was adopted in full compliance of Section 30 of the Bidhan and all members present in the meeting except one supported the resolution. This resolution amending Section 16 of the Bidhan was passed considering the difficulties that arose in the working of the Samiti by keeping Chief Minister as the Adhyaksha of the Samiti. According to the petitioner this amendment was thought necessary to keep the Samiti away from politics. According to the petitioner this amendment was introduced in accordance with section 30 of the constitution (bidhan) of the Samiti which provided: "The Constitution of the Samiti may be amended as follows: (ka) The proposal for amendment must reach the head office within the month of January every year. (kha) The amendment proposals will be sent for information to all the members of the Byabasthapika Sabha from the office. (ga) The amendment will be carried out by the two-third members present." 9. According to the petitioner the procedure stated in this section of the constitution was followed and as only ....
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.... and the case was fixed on 25-10-1984 for consideration of the question of issuing a temporary injunction. 12. When the matter was pending in the court for consideration of the question of temporary injunction the Governor of Assam purporting to act under clause (1) of article 230 of the constitution of india promulgated an Ordinance called the Asom Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti (Taking Over of Management and Control) Ordinance, 1984 and Section 1 clause (ii) of this Ordinance provided that the Ordinance shall extend to all areas over which the Asom Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti had its jurisdiction immediately before the commencement of the Ordinance. By a Notification No. EPG 57/84/16 issued under the signatures of Respondent 3 the Governor of Assam fixed 1-10-1984 as the appointed day on which the aforesaid Ordinance came into force and Section 3 of the said ordinance provided that the Government may constitute a Board for the purposes of taking over the management and control of the Samiti consisting of not more than 9 members. According to the petitioners this Ordinance was issued at the instance of the Chief Minister which was unnecessary, unwarranted and uncalled for and was ....
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....ons except Respondent 12 who was not even the member of the Rashtrabhasha Prachar Samiti were nominated. 14. The petitioners also alleged that in fact all this happened because when the then Chief Minister of Assam learnt about the amendment of the constitution carried out by Byabasthapika Sabha, and that he under the unamended Bidhan was the ex officio Adhyaksha had been dropped by the amendment of the constitution, that with mala fide intention he started taking action in a manner in which he could retain the control of the institution. First he invoked the constitution itself by superseding the body by invoking emergency provisions but when that was challenged by a suit, an Ordinance was brought taking over the Samiti as a whole specially replacing the Byabasthapika Sabha and the Karyapalika and later the Ordinance was replaced by the Act and it was contended that this all was the mala fide action of the then Chief Minister of Assam and it is further contended that unfortunately even after the new elections and a new government came into power in Assam the Act which as its title discloses was a temporary measure was continued in perpetuity, and the Samiti is being run by nomina....
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....timate the court if even now the State knowing that this was a temporary measure is intending to restore the Society back with elected functionaries under the constitution. It was indicated that the Government of Assam has no intentions even now to end this temporary arrangement of the Samiti. It is plain that although the Act talks of a temporary measure but it is only an eyewash and by this process the State Government intends to deprive the members of the Society their rights under Article 19(1)(c) for all times to come. In the Act there is no provision providing for restoration of the elected bodies which shows that the use of phrase "temporary" was just an eyewash. 16. Learned counsel appearing for the State attempted to justify the action however denying that it was not because the constitution was amended and therefore the Chief Minister was annoyed but attempted to suggest that there was some mismanagement of the Society but in any event there was no logic which could be suggested for such a permanent taking over of the Society registered discharging functions which could not be said to be not ideal and which had started working on some ideals which could not be said "not ....
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....ical education, medical education and universities, subject to the provisions of Entries 63, 64, 65 and 66 of List I; vocational and technical training of labour." The mere perusal of Entry 25 will reveal as to how difficult it will be to stretch Entry 25 to mean the authority to deprive an association of its right under article 19(1)(c) of the constitution of india. It would have been a different situation, if the State felt that it wanted to do the same thing what this Samiti was doing and to further the acts of education if it had taken steps to start similar functions at the State level. But here we are simply concerned with the taking over of the management of a registered society having large membership and assets and properties following programme and policies living to the ideals which could not be in any way challenged or adversely commented upon. Article 19(1)(c) of the Constitution provides: "19. Protection of certain rights regarding freedom of speech, etc.-(1) All citizens shall have the right- (a) xx xx xx b) xx xx xx c) to form associations or unions d) xx xx xx e) xx xx xx f) xx xx xx g) xx xx xx The Constitution Bench of this Court had an occasion to con....
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....examination in the Constitution Bench judgment referred to above, much more has been done in this case. In this case virtually the right of association has been taken away and not only that it is a sort of deprivation for all times as it is not even provided that this Board may be an interim Board and thereafter a proper board will be elected but here this Board will continue to control and manage the affairs of the Society. In the Constitution Bench case Their Lordships considered the scope of Article 19(1)(c) in the context of what was contemplated in that Act and observed: (SCC pp. 684-85, para 6) "The right to form an association, in our opinion, necessarily implies that the persons forming the association have also the right to continue to be associated with only those whom they voluntarily admit in the association. Any law, by which members are introduced in the voluntary association without any option being given to the members to keep them out, or any law which takes away the membership of those who have voluntarily joined it, will be a law violating the right to form an association. If we were to accept the submission that the right guaranteed by Article 19(1)(c) is confi....