KRUSHNA SHETAKARI Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By consent, heard finally at admission stage.

(2.) The petitioners are Co-operative Societies registered under the provisions of Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 (hereinafter for the sake of brevity referred to as "the Societies Act"). By way of present writ petitions, the petitioners are challenging the legality, validity and propriety of the orders dtd. 15/1/2021 and 18/1/2021 respectively, passed by respondent No.5, thereby rejecting the objections raised by the petitioners for including the names of delegates of the petitioner societies in the final voters list in the ensuing elections of respondent No.6- Parbhani District Central Co-operative Bank Limited, Parbhani (hereinafter for the sake of brevity referred to as "respondent No.6 Bank").

(3.) The learned counsel for the petitioners submits that after registration of the petitioner societies, the petitioner societies have passed resolutions in the general body meetings for taking membership of respondent No.6 Bank and accordingly the applications for membership were filed. The petitioner societies have also purchased the share capital for the membership of respondent No.6 Bank on 3/2/2014, 15/9/2016, 28/8/2015, 15/1/2016, 5/9/2013, 24/6/2019, 20/5/2017 respectively. Learned counsel submits that in view of the provisions of sec. 27(3) of the Societies Act, any new member society of a federal society shall be eligible to vote in the affairs of that federal society only after completion of the period of three years from the date of its investing any part of its fund in the shares of such federal society.