Q.Explain the supervisory powers of the Registrar relating to audit, inquiry, and inspection.

Because members entrust their money to the committee and cannot personally check its use, the Act makes the Registrar the guardian of their interests through supervision.

The supervisory powers form the second and, from the members' point of view, the most valuable group of the Registrar's functions. Because members entrust their savings to the managing committee and usually cannot personally verify how that money is being used, the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 makes the Registrar the guardian of the members' interests by giving him powers of audit, inquiry, and inspection.

The most important of these is the audit of accounts under Section 81 of the Act. Section 81 requires that the accounts of every co-operative society be audited at least once in each co-operative year, and this audit is conducted by the Registrar or by an auditor authorised or appointed by him. The auditor examines the books of account, verifies the cash and the stock, checks whether the society's transactions are in accordance with the Act, the Rules, and the bye-laws, and reports the irregularities, losses, and instances of mismanagement he finds. The audit is not a mere formality: it is the principal means by which the true financial condition of a society is brought to light every year, and it is on the strength of an audit report that many of the Registrar's other powers — inquiry, surcharge, supersession, or even winding up — are set in motion.

Alongside audit, the Registrar has powers of inquiry and inspection. Under Section 83, the Registrar may, either of his own motion or on the application of a specified proportion of the members or of a creditor, hold an inquiry into the constitution, working, and financial condition of a society. Such an inquiry allows him to go deeper than the routine audit where there is reason to suspect serious mismanagement. Under Section 84, he may, on the application of a creditor of the society, inspect the books of the society to satisfy himself that its affairs are being properly conducted and that the creditor's interest is safe. He also has powers to inspect the books, documents, and property of a society and to call for information and returns from it. …