SANJAY D JADHAV Vs. STATE OF MAHARASHTRA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Rule. Rule with the consent of the parties made returnable forthwith and heard.

(2.) The Petition filed under Article 226 of the Constitution of India raises a dispute in respect of various issues relating to elections of the Managing committee of respondent No. 3 - The Hanuman Vividh Karyakari Sahakari society Ltd. (hereinafter refereed to for the brevity sake as "the said Society"). The issues raised by the petitioners are inter-alia the appointment of respondent no. 4 as an Election Officer fixing the date as 1-1-2007 for being eligible to vote and transferring 64 members from borrower constituency to non-borrower constituency. The learned counsel for the petitioner Mr. S. P. Kadam however at the threshold submitted that he is not pressing the same issues and will adopt appropriate remedies available to the petitioner in law for redressal of his grievances in respect of the said issues. Mr. Kadam submitted that the only issue that he desires to agitate in this Petition is as regards the issue relating to constituency reserved for borrower members in which only borrower members would be allowed to vote and similarly for the constituency of non-borrower members, only non-borrower members will be allowed to vote. Mr. Kadam submitted that the petitioner desires to restrict the above Petition to the said issue. We are therefore not called upon to decide the other issues except the said issue as submitted by Mr. Kadam.

(3.) There was an earlier round of litigation in respect of the elections to respondent No. 3 - society. Earlier Writ Petition No. 6187 of 2006 filed by one dnyandeo Ramrao Kadam and others, came to be disposed of by a Division bench of this Court vide order dated 8-1-2007 to which one of us (F. I. Rebello, J. ) was a party. The said order has been annexed as Exhibit "c" to the above petition. By the said order, it has been held that respondent No. 2 to the Petition, could not have interfered with the electoral process as that power could not have been conferred by the Act and Rules on respondent No. 2, as respondent No. 3 herein not being a notified society, right to conduct the elections would be of the society in terms of the bye-laws. In terms of the said direction in Clause "c" of the said order, the entire exercise of holding the elections to respondent No. 3 herein was to be completed within four weeks from the date of the order. Respondent No. 3 by resolution dated 22-1-2007 appointed respondent No. 4 as on Electoral Officer for conducting the said elections for the term of five years from 2007 to 2011. Respondent No. 3 furnished a list of voters on 31-1-2007 for the purpose of preparing a provisional list of voters. The provisional list of voters was published on 13-2-2006 and time granted for submitting the objections and compliance as regards the provisional list of voters on 28-2-2007 and final list of voters was to be published on 13-3-2007. Accordingly the said stages of elections has passed and the above Petition was heard at the time when the stage of withdrawal of the nomination was reached as per the election programme.