JITENDRA MEHTA Vs. STATE OF UTTARAKHAND AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner before this Court is an elected member of District Planning Committee, Bageshwar. The petitioner has challenged the proceedings of the meeting of District Planning Committee, Bageshwar held on 21.08.2017 on ground that the said meeting was convened in contravention of the Rules and the quorum was not complete.

(2.) "District Planning Committee" has been defined under Article 243-ZD of the Constitution of India. Under Article 243-ZD of the Constitution of India, in every State there has to be a district level committee known as "District Planning Committee", which shall consolidate the plans prepared by the "Panchayats" and the Municipalities in the district and shall prepare a draft development plan for the district as a whole. Section 243-ZD of the Constitution of India reads as under:

(3.) In pursuance of the above, the State of Uttarakhand framed an Act known as the Uttarakhand District Planning Committee Act. As per the Act, the minimum number of members in a District Planning Committee has to be 15 and the maximum number of members has to be 40. Now as per the Amendment in 2016, this Court has been informed by the learned Deputy Advocate General for the State, that the minimum number of the members has been now increased to 20.