B T SANNABASAVE GOWDA Vs. STATE OF MYSORE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in these cases question or impugn the appointment made by the Deputy Commissioner of the respondents as Panchayat Secretaries which have the result of displacing the petitioners from their position as Panchayat Secretaries.

(2.) The only ground on which the appointment made by the Deputy Commissioner is assailed is that the appointment could have been competently made onlyv by the Divisional Commissioner under Section 80 of the Mysore Village Panchavats and Local Boards Act, 1959, and not by the Deputy Commissioner of the District.

(3.) But under S.197(2) of the Mysore Village Panchavat and Local Boards Act, the Government mav by a notification delegate to the Deputy Commissioner anv of the powers conferred bv the Act on the Commissioner. By an order No.DTC 24 VET 7C dt.1st June 1970. published in the Mysore Gazette dt. 25th June 1970, the Government have authorised the Deputy Commissioners to apppoint Village Accountants as Secretaries of Village Panchavats with an annual income of less than Rs.12,000 and also to appoint whole-time Secretaries temporarilv in respect of Town Panchayats and Village Panchavats with an annual income of Rs.12.000 or more, from among persons then working as Secretaries having been reeruited as per rules in force and who have passed the Lower Secondary Examination and are less than 50 years of age.