V RAMACHANDRA REDDY Vs. STATE OF ANDHRA PRADESH

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Writ Petition and many others which raise a similar question, challenges the validity of G. O. Ms. No. 532 dated 15-5-1964 issued by the Panchayat Raj Department of the Government of Andhra Pradesh. The petitioner also imputes mala fides in so far as the reconstitution of the Gudur Panchayat Samithi in such a manner as to take away some Panchayats which were supporting him and attaching the same to some other Samithi is concerned. The petitioner/ who belongs to the Swantantra Party is the President of Momidi Panchayat in Gudur Taluk and was also the President of the Gudur Panchayat Samithi constituted on 1-11-1959. In the present elections also, he has been elected as the President of the Momidi Panchayat. According to him, the ruling party wanted to set up one Siddareddy Venkata Krishna Reddy for the Presidentship of the Panchayat Samithi during the 1960 elections, and for that purpose he was sought to be brought in as a co-opted member, but that attempt having failed and having realised that they have no strength, they did not set up any candidate to oppose the petitioner. Even in the forthcoming elections, it was a foregone conclusion that the 1st petitioner would be re-elected as the President of the Samithi unopposed, if the Gudur Samithi were to be left intact as it is. Faced with this situation, the present Zilla Parishad Chairman, Sri N. Chandrasekhara Reddy thought of a device to disrupt Gudur Block beyond recognition and used his influence to deprive him even an opportunity to contest for the Gudur Samithi, under the guise of general delimitation of Samithis in the State. The 2nd petitioner was the President Uppalamarthi Panchayat in Nayudupet Block. He is once again elected as the President for the said Panchayat for the term commencing with 1-7-1964 and is deeply interested in the affairs of the Samithi and in fact he declared himself as the candidate on behalf of the Swatantra Party to oppose the Congress Candidate. He also is aggrieved by the impugned notification, inasmuch as Nayudupet Panchayat Samithis was altogether obliterated and a part of it where the Congress had the majority was added to the Gudur Samithi and the rest of it was added to Sullurpet Samithi.

(2.) It is further submitted that the Government with a view to reorganise the blocks, appointed a high-power committee under the Chairmanship of Shri M. P. Pai, for suggesting ways and means of administer these blocks more efficiently. The committee submitted a number of recommendations and the two relevant recommendations are (10 that the revenue taluk must be taken as a unit and (2) that the headquarters of the block should in no case be more than 15 miles away from any of the Panchayats in the block. After the recommendations were submitted by the committee, the Government adopted the revenue division as the unit instead of the revenue taluk and so far as the second recommendation is concerned, the Government accepted it. This recommendation was made with a view to achieve the object of compactness in constituting the blocks.

(3.) In the Gudur division, there are 5 existing blocks, viz. , Sullurpet. Naidupet, Gudur, Kota and Venkatagiri. Under the impugned notification, the number of blocks is reduced to four from five, and this was sought to be achieved by abolishing the Nayudupet block and by adding portions of the said block to Gudur and Sullurpet. The Venkatagiri block was retained intact, without any addition or subtraction. The other three blocks under the impugned notification, viz. , Sullurpet, Gudur and Kota were redelimited introducing far-reaching changes. Apart from the abolition of Nayudupeta block, the Gudur block was so re-delimited as to take away 19 of the existing panchayats and adding 21 new panchayats to Nayudupeta Samithi and three panchayats from Kota Samithi. The petitioners allege that this action is mala fide and was made to achieve the object of securing majority for the Congress Party in Gudur Samithi and to retain Kota Samithi at any cost, as the present President of the Zilla Parishad hails from that place.