ASHOK KESHAVRAO SONAR Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, seeks a mandamus to the following effect.

(2.) THE brief facts, not in dispute, could be stated as under :---The respondent No. 3 bank came to be registered under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 (for the sake of brevity, hereinafter, referred to as "the said Act") on 8-4-1996, with its area of operation of 10 Kms around Jamkhed town and at that time Shri Dilip Chandmal Bafana (present respondent No. 23) was the Chief Promoter. The ad-hoc board i. e. Board of Promoters was required to be replaced by the elected Managing Committee and because the Board of Promoters failed to take appropriate steps within the stipulated time, the District Deputy Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Ahmednagar, vide his order dated 9-6-2000 had appointed Board of Administrators with the Assistant Registrar as the Chairman of the said Board.

(3.) ON/or about 18-7-2000, the present petitioner approached the District Deputy Registrar, Co-operative Societies with an application under section 11 of the said Act and alleged that out of 1222 members of the respondent No. 3 bank, the Chief Promoter had illegally admitted as many as 391 persons as members of the said bank and therefore, their membership was required to be cancelled. In response to this application, the District Deputy Registrar by his order dated 31-8-2000 appointed one Shri A. M. Deshmukh, Assistant Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Pathardi for making an enquiry in to the said representation. Pursuant to this order, Shri Deshmukh purportedly issued show cause notices to all the 391 members, who were alleged to be admitted illegally and submitted his report on 8-12-2000. The District Deputy Registrar, therefore, addressed a letter to the petitioner on the same day stating that the respondent No. 3 was directed to cancel the membership of all these persons under section 25-A read with 35 of the Act. It is apparent from the said letter that the Assistant Registrar had conducted the enquiry on 10-10-2000, 17-10-2000 and 31-10-2000 and the proceedings were completed on 10-11-2000.