HARIBHAU GOVINDRAO Vs. MAHARASHTRA STATE BOMBAY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) AFTER the last general elections to the Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis, the Panchayat Samiti for Achalpur Taluq came to be constituted on 7-8-1962 for a period of five years. The petitioner Haribhau Govindrao Bobde was elected the Chairman of the Panchayat Samiti on that date. About two months later, on 9th of October 1962, four members of the Samiti gave notice of a no-confidence motion against the petitioner. That notice of the motion of no-confidence is at Annexure A, and the grounds annexed thereto, indicate that the members felt that the petitioner was misusing his powers and was not able to perform his duties. The Chairman, it appears, took no action upon this notice as prescribed by sub-section (2) of S. 72 of the Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961. By that sub-section, he was bound to convene a meeting of the Panchayat Samiti to consider such motion within ten days of the receipt of the notice. In this petition he states that the meeting was not convened by him, because it was, in the first place, orally communicated to him by the General Secretary of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee and later confired by an express delivery letter dated 19th of October 1962 that the resolution of no-confidence should not be considered. He has filed a copy of that letter at Annexure (b ).

(2.) CONSEQUENT upon his failure to convene the meeting under sub-section (2) of S. 72, the four members moved the Commissioner, Nagpur Division, to exercise his powers under sub-section (4) of S. 72. The request was received by the Commissioner, as admitted in his Return, on the 18th of October 1962. The Commissioner passed an order upon this requisition on 2-11-1962. That order is at Annexure R-1. He sent a copy of the order to the Block Development Officer, Achalpur, and directed him to issue immediately notices for the meetings as requested by the members of the Panchayat Samiti and make necessary arrangements for the meeting It appears that the Tahsildar, Achalpur, who was to preside over the said meeting by the order of the Commissioner, ordered notice to issue as directed "immediately" and convened the meeting for the 5th of November, 1962. The notice is at Annexure (G) and is dated 3-11-1962. What transpired at that meeting on 5-11-1962 is in dispute. But it is not necessary to go into the events that took place at that meeting on 5-11-1962; suffice it to say that the allegations made and the facts disclosed in respect of that meeting by the Tahsildar to the Commissioner, Nagpur Division and filed by the petitioner at Annexure D-a disclose a most unsavoury state of affairs. The point taken in this petition is that the action taken by the Commissioner was not in compliance with S. 72 (4) nor was the notice issued for the meeting, in compliance with that section or S. 111 (4) of the Act.

(3.) THE provisions relating to the motion of no-confidence against the Chairman or Deputy Chairman of a Panchayat Samiti are contained in S. 72 of the Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act, 1961, and the relevant provisions are in sub-sections (1), (2) and (4) which are as follows;