JUDGMENT - MOHITE R.S., J.:---Heard learned Counsel for the respective parties.

2.These writ petitions impugn interim winding up orders passed under section 102(1) of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960. The petitioners are members of the Managing Committees, who are affected by the impugned orders insofar as they have been visited by its consequences and have been required to hand over to the liquidators appointed under the impugned orders, the custody and control of all the property, effects, actionable claims, books, records and other documents pertaining to the business of the societies, which they were managing, in accordance with section 103(2) of the said Act.

3.As the possible fall of one More bastion of old style commerce is under consideration, the history of its building and collapse would bear scrutiny.

4.The problem of reducing indebtedness and of bringing credit facilities within the reach of agriculturists on reasonable terms and engaged the attention of the Government of India since 1870. In Europe, a system of rual credit societies invented by raiffeisen was under trial. The idea of using co-operation as a means of solving the Indian Rural problem was first conceived by the Government of Madras, which sent Sir Frederick Nicholson to Europe to study the theory and practice of agricultural banking and to suggest means by which a similar movement might be started in their residency. The report of Sir Nicholson submitted between 1895 and 1897 summarised his conclusions as "Find Raiffeisen". In the light of the report, scattered agricultural rural credit societies were started in the United Provinces and the Punjab but Lord Curzon, the then Viceroy realised the futility of unco-ordinated individual efforts and appointed a committee under Sir Edward Law to examine the working of the existing pioneering societies. This eventually led to the enactment of the Co-operative Credit Societies Act, 1904, which classified Co-operative Societies as "Urban" and "Rural". The Co-operative Societies Act, 1912, reclassified societies as those with "limited liability" and unlimited liabilities" and made possible the registration of "non-credit" type of societies, paving way for a wider range of rural development activities. In 1915, the Government of India took stock and appointed a committee under the Chairmanship of Sir Edward Maclagan which issued a comprehensive report called "The report of the Committee on Co-operation in India, 1915", suggesting far reaching financial reforms. In 1919, Co-operation became a transferred subject and came under the purview of the Provincial Governments. The Province of Bombay took the lead and in 1925, the Bombay Co-operative Societies Act, 1925 was passed which was amended to inter alia allow the State Government to extend financial assistance to societies and to guarantee the repayment of loans given by banks to societies. Eventually, in 1956, the Government of Bombay appointed a Committee under the Chairmanship of G.M. Laud and in 1960, brought a bill which was enacted into the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, which contained special provisions relating to the establishment of the "Land Mortgage Banks", for the purpose of granting long term agricultural credit for rural development. By Mah. 43/72, the chapter on Land Mortgage Bank was suitably redrafted providing for all relevant provisions of the Land Improvement Loans Act, 1883 and there came to be established "State Land Development Banks" in place of "Land Mortgage Banks" and in 1988, by a further amendment the land development banks came to be renamed as "Agriculture and Rural Development Banks".

5.While the super structure of such banks was under continuous improvement, in practice, inept management and other such human factors were eroding the real value worth and usefulness of such banks. The shining exterior hid a crumbling interior. It appears that the banks were not in a position to make effective recovery of

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