HYDERABAD, Oct 28: A division bench of the Sindh High Court, Hyderabad circuit, comprising Mr Justice Shabbir Ahmed and Mr Justice Anwar Zaheer Jamali, has fined Rs10,000 each on two petitioners for filing frivolous petitions.

Mir Jan Muhammad and Abdullah filed the petitions against the registrars of Cooperative Societies, Sanghar and Hyderabad, the deputy registrar of Cooperative Societies, Lower Sindh, the assistant of Cooperative Societies, Sanghar, the manager of the Sindh Provincial Cooperative Bank, Sanghar, and the chairman of the Talpur Cooperative Societies, Shahdadpur.

Mir Jan Muhammad obtained various amount of loans. He claimed that Rs376,848 was said to be outstanding against him which was to be paid by him. He said that a general notice regarding the auction of his land was issued with May 12 being the last date.

The petitioner, who was ex-chairman of the Talpur Cooperative Societies, said that he was regularly returning some or other portion of the amount and did not agree with the above shown to be outstanding against him.

The registrar of the Cooperative Societies, Hyderabad, and assistant registrar of the Cooperative Societies, Sanghar, claimed that it was wrong to assume that only one loan of Rs95,200 was obtained but in fact four loans were obtained from the bank between 1985 and 1987 and awards were also passed against the petitioner.

They informed the court that after arbitration process awards under section 54 of the Cooperative Societies Act were passed against the petitioner on December 19, 1999.

The petitioner did not file any appeal against respondent No2 under section 56 of the Sindh Cooperative Societies Act and failed to avail the alternative remedy available under the Sindh Cooperative Societies Act.

The court heard the arguments of the petitioners and state counsels and dismissed the petitions with a fine of Rs10,000 each.