HARIHAR TEWARI Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India.

(2.) The applicants, who have been convicted by a Panchayati Adalat under Sections 426, 447 and 277, Penal Code, pray that this Court may be pleased to quash the proceedings of the Panchayati Adalat and the sentence passed by it on them.

(3.) The main grievance of the applicants is that the trial took place before a bench of which only the President Shri Sarju Prasad Misra was a member of the Gaon Sabha in the jurisdiction of which both the complainant and the accused resided. His contention is that, according to Section 49 (2), U. P. Panchayati Raj Act, two of the members should have been from the area where the complainant and the accused resided. The allegation that the bench was improperly constituted is denied by the complainants on whose behalf a counter-affidavit has been filed in this case. The objection to the illegal constitution of the bench was neither taken at any stage before the Panchayati Adalat nor before the Sub-Divisional Magistrate. In these circumstances, we are bound to place reliance upon what the complainants have stated, namely, that the bench was properly constituted. Had there been any defect in the constitution of the bench, it is only natural to think that the applicants would have raised an objection, at some stage or the other before the Panchayati Adalat or the Sub-Divisional Magistrate. I must not be understood to agree with the proposition that it is open to the applicants to waive any irregularity or illegality in the constitution of the bench. It is unnecessary for me to decide this point as on the facts established in this case it does not arise.