HEMLAL VERMA Vs. STATE OF CHHATTISGARH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The challenge in all the writ petitions is to the issuance of the notification under Section 125 of the Chhattisgarh Panchayat Raj Avam Gram Swaraj Adhiniyam, 1993 (in short, the Act, 1993) by the Collector in the respective districts so far as determining the limits of Gram Panchayat for the purpose of forthcoming local elections is concerned. As the grounds raised in all the writ petitions are more or less same, without going into detailed discription of the factual details in each of the writ petitions in respect of the limits of the boundaries which stood changed by the issuance of the impugned notification in each of the cases, this court proceeds to decide the legal issues involved in these bunch of petitions by this common judgment.

(2.) In most of the cases, the contention of the petitioners is that, when the preliminary notification was published calling for objections of the aggrieved persons, if any, the villagers did not file any objections for the reason that the preliminary notification and the limits mentioned therein was acceptable to the petitioners and in most of the cases there were no change brought to the limits of the Gram Panchayat when compared to the limits as it stood prior to the issuance of preliminary notification. However, subsequently, when the final notification has been published, there has been a substantial change brought to the limits of the Gram Panchayats and in most of the cases some village has been removed from the Gram Panchayat as published in the preliminary notification and have been amalgamated with some other Gram Panchayat.

(3.) This change of boundaries while publishing the final notification, according to the petitioners, is without any notice being issued which was mandatorily required as the respondents have brought substantial change to the preliminary notification and any change brought to the preliminary notification could have been only after the villagers were given an opportunity to file their objections or suggestions.