"An unfortunate and painful situation has arisen with regard to the administration of justice in the State of Maharashtra regarding cooperative courts," the judges observed in their order on March 7 while hearing a writ petition filed by Pune-based activist Madhav Karmarkar, along with four other writ petitions.

The judges, in their ruling, a copy of which is available now, noted that appointments of cooperative court judges continue to be made by the executive, mostly on an ad hoc basis, without consulting the High Court of the State Public Service Commission, despite the ruling by the very High Court as back as in 1990that a cooperative court constituted under the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960, is a court of law, discharging judicial functions, and that the judges of the cooperative court form cadre of subordinate courts as understood by Article 234 of the Constitution.

Out of the eight judges appointed on ad hoc basis in 1988, the Chief Justice pointed out, "One judge was personal secretary to the then cooperative minister, one was stenographer in the cooperative court and one was earlier dismissed as civil judge, junior division, upon recommendations by the High Court for serious misconduct."

Quoting the counsel for the petitioner, the judges also noted that a cooperative court judge B M More had approached the Maharashtra Administrative Tribunal in 1996 with a prayer that his apprehended transfer from court 2 in Pune to court 1 be stayed, arguing that being a senior person he must preside over court 2 "as the work of that court is of greater responsibility."