Judgment

S.N. Variava, J.—Leave granted.

2. Both these Appeals are being disposed of by this common Judgment as they arise out of the Judgment of the Bombay High Court dated 19th December, 1996. In this judgment the parties are being referred to in their capacity­ in Civil Appeal No. 439 of 1997.

3. Briefly stated the facts are as follows:

On 28th of August, 1993, the Appellants appear to have made an application to the Reserve Bank of India (hereinafter referred to as RBI) for a license to start an Apex Bank for Maharashtra and Goa. The RBI by its letter dated 25th April, 1994 inter alia stated as ­follows:

“2. As you are aware, the proposed bank requires to be got registered under the Multi State Co-operative Societies Act, 1984 since its area of operation extends beyond the boundaries of a State and as such it would not be a co-operative Bank as defined in the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 (as applicable to Co-operative Societies), at present. Hence an amendment to the Banking Regulation Act, 1949 is considered necessary. The Government of India has already been apprised of the amendments needed in the context of establishment of National Co-operative Bank of India (NCBI) registered u