JUDGMENT :

1. By this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner has prayed for a writ of mandamus or any other writ, order or direction for quashing and setting aside the order dated 23.12.2020 passed by the Returning Officer, Jamnagar District Cooperative Bank Ltd. By the aforesaid order, the objections raised by the petitioner requesting the Returning Officer to hold and declare that the respondent No.5 is not eligible and qualified to contest the election was turned down.

2. The facts in brief are as under:

The Jamnagar District Cooperative Bank Limited ('the Bank' for short) is a cooperative society and “a specified society” u/s. 74(C) of the Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act. The election to the Bank which is a specified society u/s. 74(C) of the Act was due. Accordingly, a preliminary voters list was published on 23.11.2020 under Rules 4 and 6 of the Gujarat Specified Cooperative Societies (Election to Committees), Rules, 1982 (hereinafter referred to as the `Rules of 1982'). An election programme was published on 4.12.2020, nomination papers had to be filed between 14.12.2020 and 19.12.2020 and the elections for the Bank were scheduled to be held