JUDGMENT : 1. In this writ petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India read with Section 103 of Constitution of J&K State, the petitioner-Bank has prayed for the following writs/reliefs: a. Certiorari seeking to quash Order dated 30.12.2011 passed by respondent no.4; setting aside order dated 28.05.2008 passed by ld. Registrar and also order dated 10.09.2005 passed by Addl. Registrar Cooperative Societies. b. Mandamus directing Respondent Nos. 1-3 to pay back an amount of Rs.11,05,444/- upto 30.06.2012 along with interest to the Petitioner Bank on account of Transport Loan availed by Respondent No.1. 2. The facts of the case, in nutshell, are that the petitioner-Bank had advanced transport loan for an amount of Rs.4,26,000/- @ 18% interest per annum to the respondent No.1 for purchase of a Tipper on 27.05.1998. It is averred that the respondent No.1 after paying some installments defaulted the loan installments, much to the chagrin of petitioner-Bank. The last installment paid by the respondents no.1 was on 03.03.2001. When reminders/legal notices sent to the respondent No.1 and his two guarantors for dissuading them not to default loan payments, fell on deaf ears and failed to evoke any response, the petitioner-Bank, left with no alternative, had to seize the vehicle i.e. Tipper No.JK02J-8884 financed by it. 3. It is averred by the petitioner-Bank that the seized Tipper was sold through auction for an amount of Rs.1,10,000/-. The said amount was credited into the loan account of respondent no.1, and for the balance amount, the petitioner Bank filed a petition under Sections 70/72 of Cooperative Societies Act, before learned Registrar Cooperative Societies, Jammu; that the said petition was disposed of, vide order dated 10.09.2005, by the learned Addl. Registrar Cooperative Societies, Jammu, with the direction that Rs.2,00,000/- be further credited to the loan account of respondent No.1. A further direction was issued to the petitioner Bank to hold an enquiry into the auction/bid procedure adopted at the time of auction of vehicle and fix the responsibility on erring officials of the bank and recover the said Rs. 2,00,000/- from them to make good the loss to Bank. 4. A further direction was issued to the petitioner Bank to hold an enquiry into the auction/bid procedure adopted at the time of auction of vehicle and fix the responsibility on erring officials of the bank and recover the said Rs. 2,00,000/- from them to make good the loss to Bank. 4. Aggrieved of the order dated 10.09.2005, the petitioner-Bank approached the learned Registrar Cooperative Societies, Jammu with a review petitioner, who vide order dated 28.05.2008 upheld the order passed by the learned Additional Registrar Cooperative Societies, which compelled the petitioner-Bank to file a Revision Petition before J&K Special Tribunal, Jammu. The revision petition filed by the petitioner-Bank was dismissed by the learned Tribunal on 30.12.2011. Petitioner-Bank through the medium of this writ petition seeks, setting aside all the aforestated order dated 30.12.2011 passed by the learned Tribunal; the order dated 28.05.2008 passed by the Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Jammu; and the order dated 10.09.2005 passed by the Additional Registrar Cooperative Societies. 5. Mr. Sanjay Kakkar, learned counsel for the petitioner, while reiterating the grounds whereon the impugned orders have been challenged, argued that the order impugned is against the facts and law; that it has been wrongly recorded that the petitioner-Bank had not made its endeavour to recover the loan amount from the respondents and that the bank officials have not conducted the auction of the aforesaid Tipper as per procedure. He further argued that the petitioner-Bank had taken all the steps for recovering of the loan from the respondents by issuance of various reminders/legal notices/ time bound notices and auction notices but despite of its endeavour, the respondents were completely reluctant to pay the loan amount; that Bank officials had observed all the conditions required legally in the auction proceedings including a notice to the respondents besides public notice published in the ‘Daily Excelsior’ and ‘Kashmir Times’ in their editions dated 30.10.2001, inviting open bids from the public at large; that the respondent-loanee had also been intimated that in case he liquidates the outstanding amount before the date of auction i.e. before 06.11.2001, the proposed auction shall stand cancelled qua the said vehicle. It was further argued that loss to the petitioner-Bank who is a custodia legis of the public money, has every right to recover its money advanced to the loanees and finally it was prayed that the impugned orders be set aside and the petitioner-Bank be allowed to recover the outstanding amount from the respondents. 6. Mr. S. M. Choudhary, learned counsel for the respondents argued that since in the arbitration proceedings before learned Additional Registrar Cooperative Societies, the respondents had proved to the satisfaction of the Arbitrator that the petitioner-Bank had auctioned the Tipper of the loanee at a throwaway price, as such, taking note of the factual aspect of the matter, learned Arbitrator ordered for a further adjustment of Rs.2,00,000/- besides the auction money of an amount of Rs.1,10,000/- deposited in the account of the loanee; that the conduct of the Bank officials had come under cloud when they had not conducted the auction proceedings in a proper way with regard to a Tipper having been purchased only in the year 1998 was auctioned for a paltry sum of Rs.1,10,000/- without fixing any minimum price of the vehicle or in case of poor response did not go for a second auction; he has argued that the finding returned by the arbitrator on factual aspects was upheld by the learned Registrar, Cooperative Societies in a review petition. He further argued that so much so that the J&K Special Tribunal Jammu in revision petition No. STJ/434/2009 vide order dated 30.12.2011, accepted the factual aspects of the case and upheld the orders passed by both the authorities under the J&K Cooperative Societies Act. It was urged that the petition has no merit and the same was prayed to be dismissed. 7. Heard, perused the record produced by the learned counsel for the petitioner-Bank and considered. 8. It is an admitted case that the respondent no.1 had raised a loan in the amount of Rs.4.26 lakhs for the purchase of a Tipper on 27.05.1998 from the petitioner-Bank, who is a registered cooperative society and that the respondents 2 and 3 had stood as his guarantors. The loan was sanctioned with the condition that it shall be repaid in 60 installments @ Rs.11,360/- per month. The loanee, after purchase of the vehicle Tipper which was registered as JK02J-8884, started his business, paid some installments and thereafter defaulted in the repayment of loan. The loan was sanctioned with the condition that it shall be repaid in 60 installments @ Rs.11,360/- per month. The loanee, after purchase of the vehicle Tipper which was registered as JK02J-8884, started his business, paid some installments and thereafter defaulted in the repayment of loan. The petitioner-Bank, as such, was left with no option but to seize the vehicle, which had been financed and hypothecated by it. The bank officials conducted the auction of the vehicle and sold the same for an amount of Rs.1,10,000/- to one S. Gurdeep Singh. Before putting the vehicle to auction, the loanee had been issued a notice on 20.06.2001 asking him to adjust his account within ten days of the service of the notice, otherwise the Bank would be left with no option except to auction the vehicle and recover the outstanding amount. The copy of this notice was also sent to the guarantors. 9. The petitioner-Bank, after adjusting the auction amount of Rs.1,10,000/- into the loan account of the borrower, calculated Rs.2,93,963/- as an amount due towards the loanee on 04.12.2001. To recover the outstanding amount of Rs.3,42,825/- as on 30.06.2002, the petitioner-Bank filed a petition under Section 70 read with Section 72 of the Jammu & Kashmir Cooperative Societies Act, seeking award against the respondents. 10. The learned Additional Registrar, however, vide his order dated 10.09.2005 observed that the applicant-Bank has not produced the record pertaining to the bid of Tipper and concluded that no proper procedure was adopted at the time of auction and the connivance of the Bank officials could not be ruled out, as such, besides the auction money of Rs.1,10,000/- it was ordered that a further amount of Rs.2,00,000/- be adjusted in loan account of the loanee and rest of the amount be recovered along with interest at the agreed rate of 18% per annum from the date of the auction of the vehicle i.e. 04.12.2001 and payable within one year from the date of award, with further direction that the amount of Rs.2,00,000/- as ordered to be adjusted was directed to be recovered from the bank officials after fixing the liability of the erring officers/officials of the Bank. Aggrieved of this award, the petitioner-Bank filed a review petition before the Registrar, J&K Cooperative Societies, who also upheld the order and the petitioner-Bank, through the medium of a revision petition, approached Jammu & Kashmir Special Tribunal, Jammu, seeking quashment of the orders impugned passed by the learned Additional Registrar as well as learned Registrar Cooperative Societies, Jammu. 11. The learned Tribunal, in its order dated 30.12.2011, after taking notice of the orders passed by the statutory authorities under the J&K Co-operative Societies Act, recording that finding of facts that Tipper been plied for only 30,000 Kms at the time of its auction and that there was no evidence that the Tipper was out of order or was in a bad condition and that no notice had been given to the borrower from whom the vehicle was seized before taking up the auction, dismissed the review petition. The Tribunal has rightly held that the officials of Bank and financial institutions are meant for helping the borrowers in repaying the loan, being custodian of the hypothecated goods, and are expected to follow proper procedure under law, to extract maximum amount on hypothecated goods on auction. The Tribunal has candidly recorded that in the present case some mischief has been played by bank officials while auctioning the Tipper, in question, for just an amount of Rs.1,10,000/- though the vehicle was in a running condition. 12. It appears that the Authorities under the Cooperative Societies Act have dealt with the matter in a pragmatic manner after having regard to the age of the vehicle and its mileage in Kms being just 30000 kms and there being no defect in the vehicle, have rightly concluded that the auction was not conducted in a fair manner to the detriment of the interest of the loanee and his guarantors. The Bank officers/officials, being public functionaries, are not expected to have caused damage to the interest of their loanee by auctioning the Tipper for a pittance of Rs.1,10,000/- on 04.12.2001 just within three years of its purchase. The Registrar, Cooperative Societies had ordered an inquiry to be conducted by District Audit Officer, Jammu in the matter, which has also been upheld by the J&K Special Tribunal. 13. The Registrar, Cooperative Societies had ordered an inquiry to be conducted by District Audit Officer, Jammu in the matter, which has also been upheld by the J&K Special Tribunal. 13. On perusal of the record produced by the learned counsel for the petitioner-Bank, it is found that no proper separate file with regard to auction of the vehicle has been maintained and some papers in a joint file of auction with regard to seized vehicles, have been found regarding the vehicle in question only. Merely issuing notice to the loanee or his guarantors and publication of the public notice, do not make the auction proceedings fair as the officials should not have accepted the low bids to finalise the auction in first round only and in view of poor response, rather they should have gone for second round inviting more bidders. Also the minimum price should have been fixed. 14. In view of the factual aspects not favouring the petitioner-Bank and there being no pleading or urging of any illegality, this petition is found devoid of any merit and substance. The impugned orders passed by all the authorities below including the Jammu & Kashmir Special Tribunal are found to have been passed perfectly in accordance with law. The impugned orders are thus upheld. 15. As a result, the petition is found without any merit and substance and is thus hereby dismissed along with connected application(s). Interim direction(s), if any, shall stand vacated. 16. Record be returned to learned counsel for the petitioner.