JUDGMENT:

Jitendra Jain, J.

1. By this Petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the Petitioners have primarily challenged the appointment of Respondent No.4 – Shri. Subhash Deshmukh as Returning Officer for conducting election of Respondent No.5 – Society. The Petitioners although have prayed for other reliefs, but the same were not contested and therefore, we are only adjudicating the legality of appointment of Respondent No.4 as Returning Officer.

2. Briefly the facts are as under :-

(i) The Petitioners are members of Respondent No.5 – Co-operative Housing Society. On account of complaints made by some of the members of Respondent No.5 with regard to management and voters’ list for election of the society, an Administrator-Respondent No.3 came to be appointed on 28th December 2017 by Respondent No.2 – Assistant Registrar, Co-operative Societies under Section 78-A of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960. On 15th May 2018 and 21st December 2019, Respondent No.2 passed further orders for appointment of new Administrator since earlier administrator retired.

(ii) On 1st December 2023, Respondent No.4 came to be appointed as Returning Officer to conduct election