1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT AURANGABAD WRIT PETITION NO.581 OF 2010 Sanjay Panditrao Harshe, Age: 45 years, Occ: Agri., R/o. At Post Ambad, Tq. Ambad, District Jalna & Anr. .. Petitioners Versus The State of Maharashtra, Through its Secretary, Co-operation Department, Mantralaya, Mumbai - 32 & Ors. .. Respondents ... Mr. A.G. Talhar, Advocate for petitioners. Mr. V.H. Dighe, A.G.P. for respondents. ... CORAM : A.M. KHANWILKAR & S.S. SHINDE, JJ. DATE : 3RD FEBRUARY, 2010 PER COURT : Heard Counsel for the parties. 2. By this petition, it is prayed that the direction be issued to respondent No. 2 to 2 decide the application submitted by the petitioners dated 20-01-2010. By the said application, the petitioners called upon the District Collector, Jalna and Deputy District Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Jalna to hold the elections of the societies on which the Administrators were working and then alone final voters list be prepared for the election of the Board of Directors of the District Central Co- operative Bank, Jalna. 3. It is agreed by the Counsel for the petitioners that the relief claimed in this application has been considered and rejected by the Collector in the communication dated 05-01-2010. The Collector has taken the view that there was no statutory provision to issue directions as were sought by the petitioners. We are in agreement to the said opinion. In absence of such statutory stipulation, the Collector on his own, cannot issue directions to first hold elections of the societies on which 3 Administrators were working and only thereafter prepare the final voters list of the District Central Co-operative Bank, Jalna. On the other hand, as per the statutory requirement, after Administrator is appointed, the Collector is obliged to take steps to ensure that the free and fair elections of the concerned societies are conducted at the earliest and within the specified time. 4. In the present case, the learned A.G.P. on instructions, states that the election programme in respect of the concerned societies have already commenced by issuance of draft voters list and inviting objections and now steps are being taken to issue final voters list. After issuance of final voters list, programme for conducting poll will be issued as per rules. The fact that such draft voters list has already been issued and objections were invited and that steps were being taken for issuance of final voters list, these facts have not been disclosed 4 in the Writ Petition. 5. Be that as it may, taking over all view of the mater, we find no reason to interfere with the decision of the District Collector, Jalna. Hence the Writ Petition is dismissed. 6. Needless to observe that the dismissal of this petition will not preclude the petitioners to take recourse to such other remedy as may be permissible in law to question the validity of the election which will be held in respect of District Central Co-operative Bank, Jalna. ( S.S. SHINDE, J. ) ( A.M. KHANWILKAR, J.) sut/FEB10/wp581.10