The main legal point established in the judgment is the significance of Sections 83, 85, and 88 of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act in determining liability and potential disqualification of members from contesting elections.

1. At the outset the learned Senior Counsel appearing for the Petitioners seeks leave to amend the cause title of the above Writ Petition so as to make a reference to Article 227 of the Constitution of India. Leave granted. Amendment to be carried out forthwith.

2. Rule, considering the challenge raised in the above Writ Petition made returnable forthwith and heard.

3. The writ jurisdiction of this court under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India is invoked against the order dated 9/4/2015 passed by the State Government i.e. the Hon'ble Minister for Cooperation, Marketing and Textiles, Government of Maharashtra by which order the application for stay filed by the Petitioners in the Revision Application filed by them against the order dated 1/4/2015 passed by the Divisional Joint Registrar, Co-operative Societies, Kolhapur Division, Kolhapur came to be rejected.

4. It is not necessary to cite unnecessary details considering the challenge raised in the above Petition. The Petitioners herein are the ex-Directors of the Respondent No.1 Bank. An inquiry under Section 83 of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act came to be initiated against the Respondent No.1 Bank for looking into the affairs of the Respondent No.1-Bank for the period 2001 to 2012 on the premise that there were irregularities and defects which were noticed. It is required to be noted that the Board of Directors of the Respondent No.1-Bank was superseded in the year 2012 and presently an Administrator is in office. Since the outer limit of the term of the Administrator in terms of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act 1960 has come to an end, the elections are required to be held to the Board of Directors of the Respondent No.1-Bank. The said process of holding the elections to the Respondent No.1-Bank was commenced by the first phase of the program announced which operates till finalization of the voters list. Thereafter the second phase of the election program was announced on 4/4/2015 which program encompasses the stage from filing of the nominations till voting. In so far as the inquiry under Section 83 of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act (for brevity's sake hereinafter called as “the said Act”) is concerned, the Divisional Joint Registrar appointed one Shri M. L. Mali, the authorized officer and Deputy Registrar, to conduct the said inquiry under Section 83 of the said Act. The gravamen of the allegations against the Board of Directors was relating to painting work of Bank Head Office, repair work of porch of building, expenses for celebration of 75 years of bank, irregularities in class 4 employees appointment, expenses for repairs of building, irregularities in refunding Bank Guarantee Fees, irregularities in funds released to Bachat Gat without following directives of NABARD, expenses on retired officers of the bank, expenses in CCTV camera installation, expenses in Security Alarm System Installation, generator purchase irregularity, ATM machines and computer purchase cost irregularity, concessions given in OTS without following procedure, and Board of Directors Study Tour. Shri Mali submitted his report dated 20/11/2014 and in the said report held the Petitioners guilty of the alleged irregularities and defects.

5. The Petitioners aggrieved by the said report dated 20/11/2014 filed a Revision Application challenging the said order dated 20/11/2014 and also filed an application for stay of the said report. The said Revision Application and the stay application are pending.

6. In view of the fact that the report under Section 83 of the said Act has been submitted by the said Inquiry Officer a show cause notice dated 4/2/2015 came to be issued to the Petitioners under Section 85 of the said Act asking the Petitioners as to why the costs of the inquiry under Section 83 ought not to be recovered from them. The Petitioners replied to the said show cause notice vide their reply dated 11/2/2015. The Divisional Joint Registra