PARIKH KALABHAI BODABHAI Vs. VILLAGE PANCHAYAT OF PATDI

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This petition is for a writ of quo warranto or a writ in the nature of quo warranto calling upon respondents 2 to 16 to state by what authority each of them supported his claim to the office of a member of the village panchayat of Patdi Village in the District of Surendranagar and for an injunction restraining respondents 2 to 16 from holding office as members of the first respondent panchayat and exercising powers as such members.

(2.) By a notification No. 518/33B under section 4 of the Bombay Village Panchayat Act of 1933 the then Government of Bombay declared that the local areas comprising the revenue villages set out in that notification shall be villages with effect from November 1 1940 The village Patdi was one of those villages so declared as villages under section 4 of that Act. Patdi was then included in the taluka of Viramgam and that village was then a Political Saranjam Inami Village of Patdi estate and as such there was no other village in the estate of Patdi. After the abolition of that inam a revenue survey was for the first time made in 1956 under the provisions of the Land Revenue Code and as from the 1st of July 1959 the villages which once formed the estate of Patdi were transferred to the revenue district of Surendranagar. Though the village Patdi was declared a village under the Panchayat Act of 1933 no village panchayat was actually constituted until October 25 1947 when an election of the Patdi Village Panchayat took place for the first time and persons who were elected at that election took office on or about November 27 1947 As far as that election was concerned the village was not divided into wards and therefore the residents within the limits of the Inami Village of Patdi formed the entire bulk of voters for the panchayat of Patdi. The second election was held on November 15 1951 when the Village Patdi was divided into four wards. The third election took place on or about March 12 1956 for the same area and with the same wards.

(3.) According to the petitioners the local area comprising the village panchayat of Patdi was as follows: