Summary
The Supreme Court maintained invalidation of an outgoing society committee’s decision to admit twenty-two members while delaying a requisitioned no-confidence meeting. The applicants could nevertheless seek relief concerning their own membership claims. Their applications were revived for individual consideration by the newly elected committee; the tainted admission decision did not establish their personal ineligibility. They were not restored as members and had no right to participate in the intervening election.
Issues
- Whether the affected membership applicants could independently challenge the consequences of the Registrar’s order after the society’s earlier challenge failed.
- Whether invalidation of the admission decision required rejection of the applications themselves or their reconsideration by the new committee.
Held
- The affected persons had their own cause of action concerning membership. Their challenge was maintainable where the society had already espoused their cause and the Supreme Court’s earlier order expressly preserved independent challenges by them. (¶¶ 35, 37, 38, 39)
- The finding that the outgoing committee had improperly delayed the requisitioned meeting and hurried through admissions remained final. Its admission decision was invalid as a whole; earlier filing dates did not justify separately restoring five applicants’ memberships. (¶¶ 36, 44, 45, 48, 49, 51)
- Misconduct of the outgoing office bearers did not itself establish ineligibility or collusion of the applicants. They retained a right to have their applications considered, although application alone did not confer membership. (¶¶ 40, 41, 42, 43, 47, 48, 50)
- All twenty-two applications were to be treated as pending or revived and considered individually on merits by the newly constituted committee. Eligibility questions remained open, with further legal remedies available against adverse decisions. (¶¶ 50, 51, 53)
- As applicants rather than admitted members, they could not challenge the June 2020 election on a claimed right to participate in it. (¶ 52)
Result
Appeal partly allowed by reviving the twenty-two membership applications for fresh consideration; invalidation of the prior admissions maintained, without costs.