SHERLY GEORGE Vs. STATE OF KERALA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The 1st petitioner was the President and the 2nd petitioner the Vice President of Kumbalam Grama Panchayat (herein after called the 'Panchayat'). The Panchayat Committee consists of 18 members. On 24.12.2018, 7 out of the 18 members gave notice to the 4th respondent, intimating their intention to move a no-confidence motion against the petitioners. Exts. R4(a) & R4(b) are the notices of intention submitted by the 7 members. Along with the notices of intention, Exts. P2 & P2(a), the proposed no-confidence motions were also appended. The notices of intention and the proposed no-confidence motions were received and acknowledged by the 4th respondent under Exts. R12(c) & R12(d). Thereafter, the 4th respondent issued Ext P1 notice to the members of the Panchayat informing them about submission of the proposed no-confidence motion and convening of a meeting on 14.01.2019 for consideration of the motions. Later, by Exts. P3 & P4, the 4th respondent informed the members that the meeting proposed to be held on 14.1.2019 was advanced to 10.1.2019. In the meeting held on 10.1.2019, 10 out the 18 Panchayat Committee members participated. In the meeting, after the motion of no-confidence was read out by the 4th respondent, the members had a debate and thereafter unanimously voted in favour of the no-confidence motion. The petitioners and 6 other members abstained from the meeting. After voting, the 4th respondent declared the no-confidence motion against the petitioners as carried and reported the consequential casual vacancies of the President and Vice President of the Kumbalam Grama Panchayat to the State Election Commission.

(2.) The Writ Petition is filed challenging the entire process leading to the disqualification of the petitioners, based on the no-confidence motions mooted by the 7 members. The following grounds are urged in support of the challenge against the process leading up to the carrying of the no-confidence motion.

(3.) In the counter affidavit filed by the 4th respondent it is stated that the State Election Commission, in exercise of the power under Sub-section 2 of Section 157 of the Kerala Panchayat Raj Act, has issued Order No.384/2011/SEC dated 6.7.2011 designating the Secretaries of Block Panchayats as the officers authorised to receive the notice of intention to move the motion of no-confidence against the President and Vice-President of the Grama Panchayats within their Block. The Kumbalam Grama Panchayat being within the Palluruthy Block, of which the 4th respondent is the Secretary, the 4th respondent is the officer authorised to receive notice of intention to move no-confidence motion against the petitioners. The notice of intention along with the proposed no-confidence motion was submitted to the 4th respondent directly on 24.12.2018. On receipt of the notice of intention and proposed no-confidence motion, the 4th respondent had convened a meeting of the elected members of the Panchayat for consideration of the motion in terms of Section 157(3) of the KPR Act. That, even though initially the meeting was decided to be held on 14.1.2019, it was advanced to 10.1.2019 in order to satisfy the mandate of Section 157(3), which require the meeting to be convened on a date not later than 15 working days from the date on which the notice of intention to move the motion was delivered to the authorised officer. It is submitted that the meeting for consideration of the no-confidence motion was held on 10.1.2019 as slated, and in the meeting 10 members of the Panchayat Committee participated. As the meeting had the requisite quorum, the motion of no-confidence against the President was read out by the 4th respondent, after which it was declared that the motion was open for debate. After debate, the motion was put to vote and all the 10 members voted in favour of the motion and thereupon the 4th respondent declared the motion of no-confidence as carried. The same procedure was adopted in the case of the Vice President also. It is submitted that since the motions were carried with the support of majority members of the Panchayat, the petitioners ceased to be the President and Vice President of the Panchayat by operation of Sub-section 12 of Section 157. Hence 4th respondent reported the casual vacancies that has arisen in the office of the President and Vice President of Kumbalam Grama Panchayat to the State Election Commission as enjoined by Section 157(2). It is submitted that Section 157 is a Code in itself, as far as the procedure for moving of no-confidence motion against the President and Vice President of a Grama Panchayat is concerned and that after receipt of the notices of intention to move no-confidence motions against the petitioners, the procedure prescribed under Section 157 had been scrupulously followed by the 4th respondent.