Oral Judgment:

1. In 1964 the petitioner wasregistered under the Maharashtra Co-Operative Societies Act, 1960 (MCS Act). On 11.1.2007 the petitioner was converted into a multi State cooperative society.

Respondent nos. 2 and 3 are the Assistant Registrar cooperative societies and the Divisional Joint Registrar cooperative societies respectively under the MCS Act.

Respondent no.4, Mrs.Seema Ramesh Gharage is the principal debtor who had availed of facilities from the petitioner. Original respondent no.5 and respondent nos.6 and 7 are sureties in respect of the loan advanced by the petitioner to respondent no 4. Respondent nos. 5(a) to (d) are the heirs of original respondent no.5.

2. By an order dated 11.7.2006 the Assistant Registrar Cooperative Societies, respondent no.2 dismissed the petitioners application for a recovery certificate under section 101 of the MCS Act. The Petitioner challenged this order by filing a revision application under section 154 of the MCS Act. This application was rejected by the impugned order. By the impugned order dated 14.8.2008 the Divisional Joint Registrar, respondent no. 3 held that he is not empowered to entertain and decide matters pertaining to any multi State cooperative society. He therefore dismissed the petitioners application for revision under section 154 of the MCS Act for want of jurisdiction. This order was based on a judgment of a Division Bench of this court which I will refer to later.

3. The case in a nutshell is this. In 1964 the petitioner was registered under the MCS Act. During the subsistence of this registration the petitioner filed recovery proceedings under section 101 of the MCS Act against respondent nos. 4 to 7 and the same having been rejected by the second respondent, the petitioner filed an application for review under section 154 of that Act. However on 11.1.2007 during the pendency of the revision application, the petitioner was converted into a multi State cooperative society within the meaning of the expression in the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act,2002 (Multi-State Act). Thereupon the petitioner stood registered under the Multi-State Act and its registration under the MCS Act was cancelled. In view thereof respondents no 3 rejected the petitioners revision application on the ground that the authorities under the MCS Act did not have jurisdiction to decide proceedings in respect of societies registered under the Multi-State Act.

4. In terms of a sanction letter dated 10.4.2001 the petitioner granted respondent no.4 a cash credit facility of Rs.50,00,000. To secure the due repayment of the said loan respondents no.4 hypothecated various goods in favour of the petitioner; Respondent nos.4 and 7 executed a memorandum of equitable mortgage in respect of certain immovable properties and Respondent nos.4 to 7 also executed a demand promissory note and other documents undertaking the responsibility to repay the said money jointly and/or severally.

On 10.11.2004 the petitioner filed recovery proceedings under section 101 of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act as respondent nos.4 to 7 failed and neglected to repay the loan despite repeated demands. Respondent no.2, the Assistant Registrar by an order and judgment dated 11.7.2006 rejected the application. As the only question raised in this petition is one of jurisdiction it is not necessary to consider the grounds on which this judgment was based.

On 11.9.2006 the petitioner filed an application for review under section 154 of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act.

On 11.1.2007 the petitioner was converted into a multi-State cooperative society within the meaning of that expression in The Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002. This was pursuant to section 22 of the Multi-State Act.

On 14.8.2008 respondents no. 3 passed the impugned order rejecting the petitioners application for review on the ground that the petitioner having been converted into a multi-State cooperative society