A multi state cooperative society registered under the Central Act cannot takeover a cooperative society registered under a State Act, held the Gujarat High court, early this week. The Bar of Jurisdiction of Courts was dealing with a case where a petitioner had challenged order of a single judge of High Court rejecting his plea against notice of auction of his property mortgaged with a state cooperative bank, that was later acquired by a multi state cooperative society bank. Division bench of Chief Justice and Justice were deciding on point whether a multi state cooperative bank registered under cooperative societies Act, 2002, having taken over a cooperative bank registered under Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act, 1961, could legally enforce a money decree under provisions of the State Act. " Section 17 of the multi state cooperative society Act does not permit or empower a credit cooperative society to take over any cooperative society the court observed in its order. "This aforesaid fact is also confirmed by the Reserve Bank of India in its Circular dated February 2, 2005, saying that there are no specific provision in the State Acts or the Central Act for the merger of a cooperative society under the State Acts with that under the Central Act," it added. The court ruled in favor of the petitioner and held that the  cooperative bank had no power to proceed with the auction of the petitioner' s property. It also set aside the order of the single judge. According to case details, the petitioner, Jagdhish Rochani, had taken a loan of Rs 7 lakh in 1999 from one Unnati Cooperative Bank Limited (UCBL), registered under the Gujarat Cooperative Societies Act, 1961. Since, Rochani was not able to pay the monthly installments, the UBCL had attached his property. The UCBL later in 2006 got merged with Cosmos Cooperative Bank Limited (CCBL), a multi schedule bank registered under the multi state cooperative society Rules, 2002 . CCBL in September 2009 issued notice for auction of Rochani property as he had defaulted on monthly repayments. Following this Rochani approached the court and challenged the auction notice on the ground that the he had obtained loan from UCBL, a bank registered under Gujarat cooperative societies Act, 1961, and not from CCBL a multi state society bank. Hence, provisions of a multi state cooperative society registration have been made.