- (1.)THIS petition filed under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution, deals with the interpretation of Section 73-A (5)of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act, 1960 (For short," the Act".)and prays for a writ or direction that the Respondent no. 5 has suffered disqualification under the said provision, on the ground that he has been a designated Officer of the respondent No. 6 Bank i. e. Vaijapur Merchants cooperative Bank Ltd. at Vaijapur for more than 10 years in aggregate/ consecutively. Before we examine the rival contentions and record our findings, it would be imperative to set out the factual matrix in greater details so as to appreciate the issues involved in this petition.
(2.)THE respondent No. 6 Bank, is a cooperative bank, registered under the Act and its area of operation was enlarged pursuant to the resolution dated 11. 11. 1973 to the municipal area of Vaijapur (a Tahsil headquarter) and Gram Panchayat Area of Lasur Station in Gangapur taluka of Aurangabad District By further resolution dated 14. 2,1981, the area of operation was further extended to Vaijapur, Gangapur and Kannad towns and the Gram panchayat area of Lasur station (Kannad is also taluka headquarter in Aurangabad District ). This area of operation was further extended to Sillod and Paithan towns as well as the municipal corporation area of Aurangabad city and the Grampanchayat area of village Pandharpur, Taluka Aurangabad and Pishor (Taluka Kannad), by resolution dated 8/10/1995. The same "area of operation remained till 2 6/09/2000 when it was extended to the entire Aurangabad District.
(3.)THE share capital of the respondent No. 6 Bank is set out in the following tabular statement:. Year ended on Paid up Authorised Capital capital 30/06/1990 9,88,500/- 11,00,000/-30th June 1991 12,61,900/- 15,00,000/- 30/03/1992 18,28,800/- 20,00,000/- 31/03/1993, 23,60,400/- -30,00,000/- 31/03/1994 30,53,700/- 40,00,000/- 31/03/1995 39,56,700/- 40,00,000/- 31/03/1996 43,99,900/- 45,00,000/- 31/03/1997 45,36,600/- 45,00,000/- 31/03/1998 46,64,900/- 50,00,000/- 31/03/1999 49,37,500/- 1 Crore 31/03/2000 51,88,800/- 1 Crore 31/03/2001 54,99,300/- 1 Crore