. HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD LUCKNOW WRIT - C No. - 8314 of 2025 Court No. - 6 HON'BLE PANKAJ BHATIA, J. 1. Heard learned counsel for the petitioner and Shri Piyush Tripathi, learned counsel for respondent no.4. 2. Present petition has been filed by the petitioner challenging the order dated 31.07.2025 whereby the Deputy Registrar in exercise of powers under Section 22, 23 & 24 of the Societies Registration Act (for short 'the Act') has directed the auditing of the accounts through a Chartered Accountant. 3. Neat submission of learned counsel for the petitioner is that based upon some dispute that has arisen in between the petitioner and respondent no.4, certain complaints were made - gist whereof was recorded in the impugned order. On the basis of the said, directions have been issued under Section 23 & 24 of the Act for auditing of the account. Section 23 of the Act as amended in the State of Uttar Pradesh reads as under: "23. Audit.—(1) Without prejudice to the provisions of sub-section (2) of Section 4 or of Section 22, where the Registrar is of opinion Versus Counsel for Petitioner(s) : Pramod Kumar Shukla, Ashish Kumar Mishra, Ghulam Waris Counsel for Respondent(s) : C.S.C., Awadhesh Kumar Misra, Piyush Tripathi Modern Delhi Public School Samiti Lucknow Thru. President Arun Kumar Kannuajia And Anr. .....Petitioner(s) State Of U.P. Through Additional Chief Secretary, Finance Department And Ors. .....Respondent(s) that it is necessary or expedient so to do, he may, by written order, require any society to furnish its accounts or a copy of a statement of receipts and expenditure for any particular year duly audited by a Chartered Accountant: Provided that the Registrar may, at the request of society permit it to have such accounts and statement audited by any other person approved by him. (2) If the society fails to furnish the documents referred to in sub- section (1) within the period specified in the order or within such extended period as the Registrar may from time to time allow, the Registrar may cause the accounts of such society audited for the said year and may recover the cost of such audit from that society. (3) If the society neglects or refuses to make its accounts or other documents available for audit under sub-section (2) or, in the opinion of the Registrar, otherwise fails to provide requisite facilities to have the audit made with due expedition, the Registrar may proceed to take action under Section 24." 4. On a plain reading of the said provision, it is clear that an opinion has to be formed by the Registrar that it is necessary and expedient to exercise the powers to call upon the society to furnish its account or a copy of the statement of receipts and expenditure for a particular year duly audited by a Chartered Accountant. Sub-section 2 of Section 23 prescribes that in the event of failure to do so, the Deputy Registrar can get the accounts audited. 5. Prima-facie, from the allegations recorded in the order impugned, there does not appear to be any complaint with regard to improper maintenance of accounts and in any case, the power under Section 23(2) can be exercised after the power under Section 23(1) is exhausted and no reply is given by the society. 6. In the present case, there appears to be no exercise done as prescribed under Section 23(1), thus, on the said limited ground alone, impugned WRIC No. 8314 of 2025 2 order dated 31.07.2025 deserves to be quashed and is accordingly quashed. 7. Present petition stands allowed in above terms. August 29, 2025 nishant WRIC No. 8314 of 2025 3 (Pankaj Bhatia,J.) Digitally signed by :- NISHANT MOHAN High Court of Judicature at Allahabad, Lucknow Bench