1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO. 2056 OF 2010 1. Chandrakant Hari Badhe, Age : 63 Years, Occu. : Pensioner, 2. Baliram Keshav Mali, Age : 62 Years, Occu. : Pensioner, 3. Ganesh Maharu Zope, Age : 51 Years, Occu. : Agril., 4. Prataprao Jagatrao Deshmukh, Age : 68 Years, Occu. : Agril., 5. Namdeo Vithal More, Age : 53 Years, Occu. : Service, 6. Hiralal Mulji Patel, Age : 64 Years, Occu. : Business, 7. Bhiku Shankar Vanjari, Age : 55 Years, Occu. : Service, 8. Digambar Yashwant Surwade, Age : Major Years, Occu. : Labour, 9. Natthu Bhiku Zope, Age : Major Years, Occu. : Agril., 2 10. Jayantilal Ambalal Patel, Age : 69 Years, Occu. : Business, 11. Smt. Shakuntala Sadashiv Thorat, Age : 43 Years, Occu. : Business, 12. Rajendra Vishwanath Chaudhary, Age : 46 Years, Occu. : Business, All R/o : Varangaon, Tq. Bhusawal, District Jalgaon. 13. Eknath Balu Mhatre, Age : 55 Years, Occu. : Business, R/o Kate, Malvali, Kalyan, District Thane. .. .. Petitioners Versus 1. The State of Maharashtra, Through its Secretary, Co-operation, Marketing & Textile Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai. 2. The Commissioner of Co-operation, and Registrar of Co-operative Societies, Central Building, Pune. 3. The Additional Commissioner, Co-operative Society (Inspection & Election), Maharashtra State, Pune. 3 4. Shri B. S. Yampally, The Divisional Joint Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Nashik Division, Nashik. 5. Sahakar Mitra Shri Chandrakant Hari Badhe Urban Co-operative Credit Society Ltd., Varangaon, Tq. Bhusawal, District Jalgaon. .. .. Respondents Shri Vijay B. Patil, Advocate for Petitioners. Shri N. B. Khandare, Government Pleader for Respondent/State. Shri V. P. Patil, Advocate for the Respondent No. 5. CORAM : P. V. HARDAS AND N. D. DESHPANDE, JJ. DATE : 27TH JULY, 2010. ORAL JUDGMENT [Per P. V. HARDAS, J. ] : . Rule. Rule returnable forthwith. With the consent of learned counsel for parties this petition is heard finally at the stage of admission. 2. An administrator came to be appointed on the respondent No. 5/Society superseding the managing body which was managing the society. The aforesaid order came to be passed 4 U/Sec. 78 of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, dated 25.06.2009. Initial term of the administrator was for six months. Thereafter, the term of the administrator was continued and ultimately the term expired on 24th March, 2010. The petitioners, therefore, by this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India pray for issuance of a writ directing the respondents to hand over the charge of respondent No. 5/Society to the petitioners i. e. earlier managing committee of the society and also pray for declaring the continuation of the administrator as illegal and contrary to law. The petitioners also pray for certain further reliefs to which we need not advert to at this stage. 3. Curiously, the administrator came to be appointed, but no steps were taken by respondents for holding the elections of the society as the term of the earlier managing committee came to an end in June 2009. The respondents in their reply states that the proposal is moved before the State Government for notification of powers U/Sec. 157 of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act. Up-till now no order has been passed on the said proposal. Despite this the administrator continues to be in office and though the statute does not permit the continuation of the 5 administrator for such long period, yet the administrator continus to be in office. 4. We therefore, allow this petition and direct the respondents to declare, hold and complete the elections within three months from 01st August, 2010 and hand over the society to the newly elected managing committee. The learned Government Pleader is informed that no any circumstance would be entertained and request for grant of extension of this aforesaid period of three months. 5. Rule is thus made absolute on the above said terms with no order as to costs. [ N. D. DESHPANDE, J.] [ P. V. HARDAS, J.] bsb/July 10