NATIONAL CO-OPERATIVE KENTE AND ADINKRA WEAVERS ASSOCIATION v. REGISTRAR OF CO-OPERATIVES

JUDGMENT OF TAYLOR J.

The plaintiffs in this suit are a co-operative association with limited liability registered under sections 4 and 5 of the Co-operative Societies Decree, 1968 (N.L.C.D. 252). In compliance with the provisions of section 8 of the Decree, the plaintiffs have registered their bye-laws. In their statement of claim, they aver that the association they registered was originally composed of two unions from two regions of Ghana and made up of seven societies, but that after registration and in keeping with their bye-laws they admitted new societies which covered the Eastern, Volta and Ashanti Regions.

By their statement of claim, they would seem to be maintaining that, once they have registered their association, they are entitled to conduct the affairs of the association in accordance with their registered bye-laws. They also seem to claim that by their bye-laws they have authority to admit new members to the association to the exclusion of the defendant and any other authority. In this suit, they say that the defendant has been interfering with their conduct of their affairs contrary to the bye-laws and the provisions of the Decree and that he has been usurping their powers of admitting new members, by himself admitting new members. The present action was therefore instituted, inter alia, for "Perpetual injunction restraining the defendant, his servants or agents from interfering with the day-to-day affairs of the plaintiffs and also from registering non-members of the association."

In an interlocutory application on notice for an interim order of injunction, counsel for the Registrar of Co-operatives, Mrs. Orleans, has raised a preliminary objection contending that an injunction is not a permissible remedy to be prayed against a servant of the Republic and therefore the interlocutory application should be dismissed in limine. The argument she put forward ran like this; [p.824] The post of Registrar of Co-operatives was established by N.L.C.D. 252. Under the Decree, apparent from reading it, the Registrar of Co-operatives hereinafter described as the registrar, is charged with the responsibility of seeing to the proper and efficient administration of the Decree. That apart, the registrar is a civil servant working in the Department of Co-operatives under the Ministry of Local Government, Co-operatives and Consumer Affairs. Counsel submitted that under section 68 of N.L.C.D. 252 his remuneration is charged to the Consolidated Fund. She