Appointment of the Commissioner and Registrar and the Hierarchy of Subordinate Registrars

The authority to appoint these officers rests with the State Government, and the source of that authority is Section 3 of the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960. Section 3 provides that the State Government may appoint a person to be the Registrar of Co-operative Societies for the State, and may also appoint one or more persons to assist the Registrar. It is under this power that the State Government appoints its senior officer as the Commissioner for Co-operation and Registrar of Co-operative Societies, giving that single post both the administrative headship of the department and the statutory powers of the Registrar under the Act.

Because co-operative societies exist in every corner of Maharashtra — from a small village credit society to a large urban co-operative bank — it would be impossible for one officer to deal personally with all of them. Section 3 therefore allows the State Government to appoint a whole hierarchy of officers to assist the Registrar and to exercise the Registrar's powers in the areas or for the classes of societies assigned to them. These subordinate officers are commonly designated, in descending order, as the Additional Registrar, Joint Registrar, Deputy Registrar, and Assistant Registrar of Co-operative Societies. Below the district level there are also officers such as the District Deputy Registrar and, at the taluka level, the Assistant Registrar or the officer who actually registers and supervises the primary societies of that area. …