The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has ordered removal of Maharashtra Cooperation minister Babasaheb Patil and seven other directors of the Latur District Central Cooperative Bank for exceeding the 10-year tenure limit.
Patil belongs to the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) led by Deputy Chief Minister Sunetra Pawar.
The action has been taken due to directions passed by the Aurangabad bench of the Bombay High Court in response to a petition filed by bank member Satish Sheshrao Jadhav.
RBI Assistant General Manager Kapil Goswami issued the order on Friday. Directors of District Central Cooperative Banks (DCCBs/Central Cooperative Banks) have a maximum tenure cap of ten years under the Banking Regulation Act, 1949, as amended by the Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025.
Earlier, State Cooperation Department Deputy Secretary Sudhir Amrite had written to the Cooperation Commissioner, Pune, seeking action against directors of district central cooperative banks who had completed more than 10 years in office.
The Banking Laws (Amendment) Act, 2025 changed the tenure provision. Earlier, the maximum continuous tenure was 8 years; for cooperative banks, it was increased to 10 years.
The amended provision says, in substance, that a director other than the Chairman or Whole-time Director cannot hold office continuously beyond 10 years in the case of a cooperative bank.
Under this provision, once a director completes 10 years of continuous tenure, the person can be re-appointed to the Board of the same bank only after a minimum cooling-off period of 3 years.
Subsequently, on May 25, 2026, Satish Jadhav submitted a complaint to the Chief General Manager of the RBI, seeking disqualification of eight directors of the Latur DCC Bank on the same ground.
Jadhav told PTI on Saturday that copies of the complaint were also submitted to the Divisional Joint Registrar, Cooperative Societies, Latur Division; the Cooperation Commissioner, and the NABARD section of the RBI.
As the RBI did not act on the complaint, Jadhav moved the Bombay High Court on June 21, 2026. On August 3, the court asked the RBI to take action on Jadhav’s May 25 complaint within six weeks.
The RBI on September 4 asked the concerned directors to submit their responses by September 10. Seven of the directors, namely, Ashok Shivajirao Patil Nilangekar, Shripatrao Nivruttirao Kakade, Swayamprabha Dhananjay Patil, Vyankatrao Dhondiram Birajdar, Prithviraj Harishchandra Shirsat, Pramod Jadhav and Nagorao Patil, submitted their resignations to the bank’s chairman and Managing Director Hanumant Jadhav on September 10.
The bank’s executive director approved the resignations and forwarded them to the RBI General Manager by email. On September 18, the RBI directed the Latur DCC Bank to remove from office “the director who is ineligible to hold office under Section 10A(2A)(i), read with Section 56 of the Banking Regulation Act, 1949.”
