P SUBBULAKSHMI Vs. STATE OF TAMIL NADU

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioner has come forward with this writ petition praying for a Writ of Declaration to declare that Section 3CC in Chapter IB of the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1920 introduced by the Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2006 (Act 18 of 2006) published in Tamil Nadu Government Gazzette Extraordinary No.223 dated 01.09.2006 by the first respondent is ultravires and unconstitutional.

(2.) THE case of the petitioner is that she was the elected member of Ward No.8 of the then Courtlam Special Village Panchayat and assumed office on 30.06.2003, which should continue for five years unless sooner dissolved under law. While so, under the pretext of upgradation of the village panchayat into town panchayat in exercise of power under Section 3 CC of the Tamil Nadu District Municipalities Act, 1920, hereinafter referred to as the Act, the tenure of the petitioner was reduced ending with 24.10.2006, which is against law, if at all that can be done only by invoking the powers conferred under Section 41 of the Act, that too for the reasons mentioned therein, hence, the present writ petition has been filed seeking for a declaration to declare that Section 3 CC of the Act in Chapter I A of the Act as ultra vires and unconstitutional.

(3.) MR. Viduthalai, learned Advocate General appearing for the respondents 1 and 2 submitted that the writ petition is barred by res judicata as the petitioner has withdrawn the earlier writ petition No.34698 of 2006, which was filed challenging the validity of G.O. Ms. No.91 dated 11.09.2006 fixing 24th October 2006 as the date up to which the Chairman and Members of Courtlam and other two Panchayats continue to hold office as Chairman and Members that in and by G.O. Ms. No.55 dated 14.07.2006, orders were issued for re-constitution of 561 Special Grade Village Panchayat as town Panchayats that in the Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws (Amendment) Ordinance (Tamil Nadu Ordinance 4/2000) promulgated on 14.07.2006, later repealed by Tamil nadu Municipal Laws (Amendment Act 2006) - Tamil Nadu Act 18 of 2006, special provisions relating to Village Panchayats constituted as Town panchayat (Section 3CC) have been inserted in the Act that by virtue of the said amendment, the petitioner is entitled to hold office upto such date as the State Government fix in this behalf under the Tamil Nadu Panchayats Act, 1994, hence, the contention of the petitioner that she is entitled to hold office for the full term of five years upto 29th June 2008 is untenable that G.O. Ms. No.91 dated 11.09.2006 was issued fixing 24th October 2006 as the date upto which the Chairman and Members of certain Town Panchayats, including Courtlam Town Panchayats shall continue to hold office, thereafter, election was conducted in which the respondents 6 to 11 were elected. The learned Advocate General brought to the notice of this Court Articles 243 (E), 243 (C), 243 (Q), 243 (U) and 243 ZA (2) of the Constitution of India in support of his contention that when a Village Panchayat is upgraded as town Panchayat, the duration of the Village Panchayat comes to an end and the same type of successor of Town Panchayat takes over as a consequence of the term of the previous village panchayat coming to an end that Article 243 (E) cannot be applied to a case where entry of one description is converted into area of another description and one description of panchayat is ceased by constituting another Town panchayat of a better description that Section 41 of the Act gives power to the State Government to dissolve the local body, which is not competent to hold or persistently make default in performing duties imposed on it by law or exceed or abuse its powers, whereas in the case on hand, the special village panchayat comes to an end pursuant to the upgradation, hence, the said Section 41 of the Act cannot be equated with the case of upgradation and prayed for dismissal of the writ petition.