JUDGMENT K.N. Seth, J. - This petition is directed against the notice dated 19th November, 1979 issued by the Deputy Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Gorakhpur Division, Gorakhpur, under Section 35(1) of the U.P. Co-operative Societies Act, 1965 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) calling upon the Committee of Management of the District Co-operative Bank Ltd., Basti, to show cause why it be not superseded and against the order of the same authority dated 20th November, 1979 passed in exercise of powers under Section 35-A, (J) directing the Chairman and all members of the Committee of Management of the said Societies to vacate their respective offices and entrusting the management of the affairs of the Societies to Sri B. P. Singh, the Assistant Registrar, Co-operative Societies. Baiti. During the course of hearing only the validity of the order passed under Section 35 A (3) was challenged before us. 2. Originally the petition was filed by the Committee of Management of the District Co-operative Bank Ltd., Basti. Today an application was moved for amendment of the petition by impleading Sri Ajai Singh, Chairman of the Committee of Management and Sri Virenora Bahadur Singh, Smt. Raieshwari Devi, Sri lshwar Chand Shukla and Sri Lal Devendra Bahadur Pal, Members of the Committee of Management as petitioners no. 2 to 6 in the petition. That application has been allowed by a separate order. 3. The District Co-operative Bank Ltd., Basti, is a registered body governed by the Act and the Rules framed thereunder. The bank has many societies as members who take loans from the bank according to their individual shares for disbursement amongst their members. Sri Ajai Singh and Sri Arjun Singa were elected Chairman and Vice-Chairman respectively and 11 persons, including petitioners nos. 3 to 6, were elected Directors of the Committee of Management. Their term of office still continues. A notice dated 19th November, 1979 under Section 35 (1) of the Act was issued by the Deputy Registrar, Co-operative Societies to the Committee of Management requiring it to submit its explanation within a month to the charges set out in the notice. It was followed by an order of the Deputy Registrar dated 20th November, 1979 purported to have been made in exercise of powers under Section 35-A (3) of the Act which has been impugned in this petition. 4. It was followed by an order of the Deputy Registrar dated 20th November, 1979 purported to have been made in exercise of powers under Section 35-A (3) of the Act which has been impugned in this petition. 4. Admittedly before the impugned order was passed no opportunity at all was afforded to the Committee of Management to explain its position. ,t was contended that the order in question could not be validly passed without affording an opportunity to the Committee of Management and that it Was arbitrary and mala fide. Section 35-A of the Act reads as follows : - "35A. (1) without prejudice to other provisions of this chapter, where for two successive co-operative years (including any period before the commencement of this Section) : - (a) more than seventy per cent of the total dues of any primary society, which is a credit society against its members during any cooperative year, remain unpaid at the end of such year ; or (b) the number of defaulting members exceeds seventy per cent of the total number of indebted members of such society, at the end of any such year, then, the Chairman and all members of the Committee of Mincemeat of any such society shell, upon an order coming into affect under sub-section (3), vacate their respect.t offices as such. (2) The provisions of sub-section (1), as they apply to a primary credit society, shall mutatis mutandis apply to a financing bank with the substitution of reference to seventy per cent by references to sixty per cent. (3) In relation to any society or banks as referred to in sub section (1) or sub-section (2), the Registrar may make such arrangements as he thinks proper for the management of the affairs of such society or bank, as he thinks fit and the provisions of sub-sections (3), (4), (5) and (6) of Section 35 shall mutatis mutandis apply" This section does not expressly provide that before passing an order under subsection (3) an opportunity shall be afforded to the Committee of Management of the Society. It cannot, however, be disputed that the effect of the order is to deprive the Committee of Management of its power to manage the affairs of the Society. It cannot, however, be disputed that the effect of the order is to deprive the Committee of Management of its power to manage the affairs of the Society. The Committee of Management, which is an elective body, has a legal right to manage the affairs of the society for the period of its term of office. Principles of natural justice and fair play demand that before such a body is deprived of its legal rights to manage the affairs of the Society, an opportunity should be afforded to it to establish that the conditions precedent for exercise of the power under sub-section (3) do not exist, in the impugned order it has been set out that for the cooperative year 1977-78 the number of defaulting members exceeded 82 per cent and for the year 1978-79 it exceeded 86 per cent. If opportunity had been afforded to the petitioners they might have been in a position to satisfy the authority that the entire premise was wrong and that the number of defaulting members in none of the two years exceeded 60 per cent. Since no such opportunity was afforded to them the impugned order passed under Section 35-A (3) cannot possibly be sustained. 5. Since the order is liable to be quashed on the above-noted ground, it is not necessary to enter into the controversy whether the impugned orders arbitrary and mala fide. 6. The petition is accordingly allowed. The order of the Deputy Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Gorakhpur Division, Gorakhpur, dated 20th November, 1979 is quashed. Parties shall bear their own costs.