-- 1 -- WP 5586.2026 (J).doc IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY BENCH AT NAGPUR WRIT PETITION NO. 5586 OF 2026 Chandrashekhar S/o. Rambhau Khedkar, Proprietor and Licensee Shree Yogiraj Traders, Shop No.40, APMC Market, Akola .. Petitioner Versus 1. Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), Akola, Akot Road, Akola – 444003, through its Chairman Email : am_akola@msamb.com 2. The Secretary, Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), Akola, Akot Road, Akola – 444003 .. Respondents 3. The District Deputy Registrar, Akola and Competent Officer, Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), Akola, District Akola. 4. Sandeep S/o. Chaukhande, Age Adult, Occ : Proprietor of Chaukhande Bandhu, Shop No.68 APMC Akola --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Dr. Mrs.Renuka S.Sirpurkar, with Mr. K. R. Giripunje, Advocates for petitioner. Mr. A.M.Ghare, Advocate for respondent Nos.1 and 2. Mr. N.S.Autkar, AGP for respondent No.3. Mr. S.S.Shingane, Advocate for respondent No.4. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- CORAM : ANIL S. KILOR AND RAJNISH R. VYAS, JJ. DATE : AUGUST 31, 2026 PAGE 1 OF 11 2026:BHC-NAG:11518-DB -- 2 -- WP 5586.2026 (J).doc ORAL JUDGMENT (PER : ANIL S. KILOR, J.) (1) Heard. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. Heard finally with the consent of the learned counsel appearing for the parties. (2) The petitioner, who was a ‘Trader’ and was elected from the Traders’ category as a member of respondent No.1 – Agricultural Produce Market Committee (APMC), Akola, was served with the impugned communication dated 25/04/2026, informing him that, since his licence as a Trader has not been renewed for the year 2026–27, he has ceased to continue as a member of respondent No.1 – APMC and, therefore, his seat has become vacant. The said communication is the subject matter of challenge in the present petition. (3) We have heard learned counsel for the respective parties. Mrs. Renuka Sirpurkar, learned counsel for the petitioner, argued that the Secretary of the APMC has no authority to declare that the seat has become vacant. Therefore, by issuing the communication dated 25/04/2026, he has exceeded his jurisdiction. (4) It is submitted that such vacancy is required to be declared by the Director in the event of any dispute being raised regarding such vacancy under Sub-Rule (3) of Rule 10 of the PAGE 2 OF 11 -- 3 -- WP 5586.2026 (J).doc Maharashtra Agricultural Produce Market Committee (Election to Committee) Rules, 2017. (5) It is further argued that the principles of natural justice were not complied with. It is submitted that without affording an opportunity of being heard to the petitioner, it is declared that the seat of the petitioner has become vacant. (6) It is further argued that though the petitioner applied for renewal of licence, till date the same is not renewed and therefore, during the pendency of such application for renewal, it cannot be said that the licence is lapsed or not renewed. It is, therefore, submitted that the declaration of the petitioner’s seat as vacant is illegal and contrary to law. (7) On the other hand, Mr.Ghare, learned counsel for APMC argued that the proviso to Sub Section (1) of Section 15 clearly states that on a cessation of licence, the member holding licence would cease to be such member as APMC and he shall be deemed to have vacated his office. It is submitted that the deeming provision is automatic and no further declaration is required. It is submitted that the Secretary has therefore, rightly communicated to the petitioner that his seat has become vacant for non-renewal of licence for the year 2026-27. PAGE 3 OF 11 -- 4 -- WP 5586.2026 (J).doc (8) Mr.Autkar, learned AGP appearing for respondent No.3 and Mr.Shingane, learned counsel appearing for respondent No.4 reiterated the arguments of the respondent-APMC and prayed for dismissal of the present writ petition. (9) Having heard the rival contentions and perused the record, it is evident that the petitioner was a Trader and he was holding a licence at the time when he contested election in the year 2023 as a Member from the category of Traders. (10) The question involved in the present petition is, whether upon cessation of the licence of the petitioner as a trader he ceased to be a member and shall be deemed to have vacated the office, without any declaration made to that effect by the competent authority under the Act ? (11) Before answering the above referred question, it would be appropriate to refer to the relevant provisions of the Maharashtra Agricultural Produce Marketing (Development and Regulation) Act, 1967 and the Maharashtra Agricultural Produce Market Committee (Election to Committee) Rules of 2017. The relevant provisions are Sections 14, 15, 18 of the Act of 1967 and Rules 10 and 73 of Rules of 2017. The relevant part of the aforementioned provisions which read as under :- PAGE 4 OF 11 -- 5 -- WP 5586.2026 (J).doc “14. Election and term of office of members (3) Except as otherwise provided in this Act, the members of a Market Committee (not being a Committee constituted for the first time) shall hold office for a period of [five years], and the members of a Committee constituted for the first time shall hold office for a period of two years : 15. Commencement of term of office of members (1) The term of office of members of a Market Committee shall be deemed to commence on the date of the first meeting of the Market Committee at which business is transacted : [Provided that, a person who is a member by virtue of his being a representative, or holding office, or holding licence belonging to any of the categories of members referred to in sub-section (1) or (1 A) of section 13, shall hold office as such member so long only as he continues to be such representative or to hold such office or such licence and on his ceasing to be such representative or holding such office or licence he shall cease to be such member and he shall be deemed to have vacated his office. [18. Casual vacancies. [18. Casual vacancies. In the event of a vacancy occurring on account of death, resignation or removal of a member, or on account of a member becoming incapable of acting as a member, or otherwise, the Market Committee shall fill up the vacancy by co-opting a person eligible for being elected as a member : Provided that, the number of such co-opted members shall not exceed two at any time in Market Committee and any vacancy thereafter shall be filled by the election : Provided further that, if the vacancy occurs within six months preceding the date on which the term of office of the member expires, the vacancy shall, unless the State Government directs otherwise, not be filled.]” Rule 10 (3) Where any question arises as to whether a person has become subject to any of the disqualification mentioned in sub-rule (1), such question shall be decided by the Director within thirty days of its reference. On the decision of the Director or the decision in Appeal, as the case may be, a person who is disqualified shall cease to hold office from the date of the decision by the Director or by the Appellate Authority, as the case may be. The Market Committee shall on receipt of such decision, fill up the vacancy by co-opting a person eligible for being elected as a member as provided under section 18 of the Act. “Rule 73. Casual vacancies how to be filled in In the event of vacancy occurring on account of death, resignation, PAGE 5 OF 11 -- 6 -- WP 5586.2026 (J).doc disqualification or removal of the member of a Market Committee or through such a member becoming incapable of acting prior to the expiry of his term of office or otherwise, the Secretary of the market committee shall forth with communicate the occurrence of such vacancies to the State Co- operative Election Authority and the vacancy shall be filled as provided in Act.” (12) Having perused the above referred relevant provisions, it is evident that Sub Section (3) of Section 14 speaks about the term of office of APMC. It stipulates that a member of an APMC, not being a Committee constituted for the first time, shall hold office for a period of five years. (13) Proviso to Sub Section (1) of Section 15 says that a person who is a member by virtue of his being a representative, or holding office, or holding licence belonging to any of the categories of member referred to in Sub-Section (1) or (1A) of Section 13, such member shall cease to be member and shall be deemed to have vacated office on his ceasing to be representative or holding of such office or licence. (14) A casual vacancy may occur due to the death or resignation of a member under Section 16, or his removal under Section 17, or on account of a member becoming incapable of acting as such member like under the proviso to sub-section (1) of Section 15. (Under the said proviso, a person who is a member by virtue of his being a representative, or holding office, or holding licence belonging to PAGE 6 OF 11 -- 7 -- WP 5586.2026 (J).doc any of the categories of members referred to in Sub-Sections (1) or (1A) of Section 13, shall be deemed to have vacated his office upon ceasing to be such representative or holding such office or licence.) Section 18 also provides for vacancies occurring otherwise. (15) It is to be noted that, Section 18 was substituted by Maharashtra 11 of 2003, Section 9 (w.e.f. 08.04.2003). As per the old Section 18, it was mandatory for the Secretary to issue communication to the Director of the occurrence of casual vacancy. Now with new provision of Section 18, no such requirement is stipulated to communicate occurrence of casual vacancy to the Director. (16) The reason for not providing for such requirement is Rule 73 of the Rules of 2017. (17) Rule 73 of Rules of 2017 deals with casual vacancies how to be filled in. The said provision mandates the Secretary of the market committee to communicate the occurrence of such vacancies to the State Co-operative Election Authority. It further mandates to fill the vacancy as provided in Act. (18) The State Co-operative Election Authority is the Authority constituted by the State Government under Section 73-CB of the PAGE 7 OF 11 -- 8 -- WP 5586.2026 (J).doc Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960. The powers of superintendence, direction and control of the preparation of the electoral roll for the conduct of, all elections are vested in the aforesaid Election Authority. The Election Authority is empowered to conduct every general election, including elections to fill casual vacancies, in accordance with the prescribed procedure. (19) Powers of the Election Authority has prescribed under Rule 3 of Rules of 2017. Whereas under Rule 4 of Rules of 2017 duty is caste on the Election Authority to hold election of Market Committee in accordance with the provisions of the Act and Rules of 2017. (20) As per the deeming provision namely, proviso to Sub Section (1) of Section 15, it is necessary to give the full effect to the same as held by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India in the case of Harish Tandon vs. Additional District Magistrate, Allahabad U.P. and others reported in (1995) 1 Supreme Court Cases 537. The Hon’ble Supreme Court of India has held thus :- “13. The role of a provision in a statute creating legal fiction is by now well settled. When a Statute creates a legal fiction saying that something shall be deemed to have been done which in fact and truth has not been done, the Court has to examine and ascertain as to for what purpose and between what persons such a statutory fiction is to be resorted to. Thereafter full effect has to be given to such statutory fiction and it has to be carried to its logical conclusion. In the well-known case of East End Dwellings Co. Ltd. v. Finbsbury Borough Council, 1952 A.C.109, Lord Asquith while dealing with the provisions of the Town and County Planning Act, 1947, observed : PAGE 8 OF 11 -- 9 -- WP 5586.2026 (J).doc "If you are bidden to treat an imaginary state of affairs as real, you must surely, unless prohibited from doing so, also imagine as real the consequences and incidents which, if the putative, state of affairs had in fact existed, must inevitably have flowed from or accompanied it. .….. The statute says that you must imagine a certain state of affairs; it does not say that having done so, you must cause or permit your imagination to boggle when it comes to the inevitable corollaries of that state of affairs." (21) From the above referred observations, it is evident that as held in the case of East End Dwellings Co. Ltd. v. Finbsbury Borough Council reported in 1952 AC 109, wherein it is said that when one is bidden to treat an imaginary state of affairs as real, he must surely, unless prohibited from doing so, also imagine as real the consequences and incidents which, must inevitably have flowed from that state of affairs. (22) In the light of the above referred observations recorded by the Hon’ble Supreme Court of India and in the case of Harish Tandon (supra) there is no element of doubt that, the moment licence of the petitioner ceased to operate for the reason of non renewal of the same, the petitioner ceased to be a member of the respondent No.1 APMC and was deemed to have vacated his office as member of the APMC. To give full effect to deeming fiction the Secretary has to communicate the occurrence of such vacancy to the State Cooperative Election Authority under Rule 73 and thereafter, the Election Authority has to conduct the election in accordance with the provisions of the Act. PAGE 9 OF 11 -- 10 -- WP 5586.2026 (J).doc (23) Further, the argument advanced by the petitioner that the question as to whether his seat has become vacant or not is required to be decided by the Director under sub-rule (3) of Rule 10 of the Rules of 2017, is misconceived and deserves to be rejected for the following reasons: :- (24) In view of the deeming fiction, as per the proviso to sub- section (1) of Section 15 on cessation of the licence of the petitioner, the petitioner ceased to be such member and he deemed to have vacated his office. Having held that to give full effect to such deeming fiction, there is no requirement to issue any declaration, if the argument of the petitioner is accepted that a question is whether the seat has become vacant or not to be referred to the Director under Sub Rule (3) of Rule 10, the deeming fiction would be redundant. (25) The reason is that, as per sub-rule (3) of Rule 10, a person who is disqualified under sub-rule (1) of Rule 10 shall cease to hold office from the date of the decision of the Director or the Appellate Authority, as the case may be. Whereas, as per deeming fiction the moment a person ceased to be such representative or holding such office or licence, he shall cease to be such member and shall be deemed to have vacated the office. (26) Due to deeming fiction the date of cessation of such representative or holding such office or licence is the date to be held as PAGE 10 OF 11 -- 11 -- WP 5586.2026 (J).doc date on which seat would become vacant. Contrary to this, as per sub- rule (3) of Rule 10, the seat would be vacant from the date of order of Director or Appellate Authority as the case may be. (27) In the circumstances, where a seat has become vacant of any member of Market Committee, owing to provision, namely, proviso to Sub Section (1) of Section 15 and Sub Rule (3) of Rule 10 will not apply. (28) Having observed so, we are of the opinion that the petitioner is not right in saying that the Director has to declare such vacancy and unless vacancy is declared, it cannot be held that the seat occupied by the petitioner has become vacant. We further reject the submission of the petitioner that the Secretary has no authority to declare such vacancy or communicate such vacancy. (29) In the circumstances, we do not find any merit in the present case. Accordingly, the writ petition is dismissed. No order as to costs. [ RAJNISH R. VYAS, J. ] [ ANIL S. KILOR J.] KOLHE PAGE 11 OF 11 Signed by: Mr. Ravikant Kolhe Designation: PA To Honourable Judge Date: 01/09/2026 21:00:11