- (1.) HEARD the parties. Rule returnable forthwith with the consent of the parties.
(2.) THE brief facts of the case are that the petitioner is a member of Vividh Sahakari Sewa Sahakari Sanstha Limited, Pipartola, Taluka Amgaon, District- Gondia. The society passed a resolution requesting the Assistant Registrar, Co-operative Society, Amgaon to hold the election and accordingly, the respondent No. 1 Assistant Registrar directed the society to appoint a Returning Officer. Accordingly, the respondent No. 2 was appointed as a Returning Officer. The petitioner and respondent Nos. 3 to 5 were also the members of the said society, filed their nomination forms. However, the nomination forms of the respondent Nos. 3 to 5 were rejected by the Returning Officer since they were defaulters. However, in the appeal filed by the respondent Nos. 3 to 5, the respondent No. 1 passed an order on 19-11-2001 and allowed the appeals and directed the Election Officer to include the names of the respondent Nos. 3 to 5 in the list of valid candidates. The petitioner is challenging the said order dated 19-11-2001.
(3.) THE petitioner is also challenging the election programme declared by the respondent No. 2. The Counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner contended that the provisions of section 152-A of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 have not been complied inasmuch as, there is no gap of 15 days between the scrutiny of nomination papers and last date of withdrawal of candidates and as such the election programme published by the Returning Officer is bad in law and illegal. He submitted that the date of declaration of the final list of candidate was 8-11-2001, whereas the actual date of withdrawal of candidate is 17-11-2001. ub-section (2) of section 152-A is reproduced below: "notwithstanding anything contained in this Act or the Rules or the Bye-laws made thereunder, the list of validly nominated candidates shall be subject to the decision of any appeal filed under sub-section (1), and the period between the date of scrutiny of nomination papers and the last date of the withdrawal of candidates shall not be less than fifteen days. ";