Swati Ulhas Kerkar and Ors. v. Sanjay Walavalkar and Ors.
Background
The outgoing Managing Committee of a Goa-based educational society, facing a no-confidence motion requisitioned by a majority of its 32 members, first deferred and then cancelled a Special General Body Meeting sought to remove it. Shortly afterward, that same committee hastily inducted 22 new members (including the appellants) just before its term ended, which a member challenged in the Bombay High Court (Goa Bench). The Registrar of Societies and the High Court both found the induction to be a "colourable" and illegal exercise of power designed to entrench the outgoing committee's allies, and set it aside, leading the newly rejected members to appeal to the Supreme Court.
Decision Breakdown
The Supreme Court agreed that the outgoing committee's decision to admit 22 new members on its way out, while dodging a no-confidence vote, was indeed an improper and non-est (legally non-existent) exercise of power, and declined to treat any of the 22 members, even five who had applied earlier, differently from the rest. However, it modified the relief: rather than leaving the appellants with nothing, the Court held that their original membership applications (filed between September and December 2016) should be treated as still pending, to be considered afresh on merits by the newly and properly elected Managing Committee, without being bound by the earlier adverse observations.
Lesson Learnt
An outgoing committee cannot use its last days in office to rush through decisions, such as admitting new members, specifically to defeat a pending no-confidence motion, such action is treated as a legal nullity, but an appellate court can still protect genuine, independent applicants by reviving their original, bona fide applications for fresh and fair consideration.