TOTA LACHHAIAH Vs. DISTRICT PANCHAYAT OFFICER GUNTUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This Is a petition, under Article 226 of the Constitution, for the issue of a writ of Certiorari quashing the notification issued by the Government in G. O. (Ms) No. 1552 L. A., dated 22-6-1959 or in the alternative for the issue of a writ of Mandamus directing the District Panchayat Officer, Guntur to renotify the wards as indicated in the earlier G. O, Ms. No. 1255 L.A. dated 23-5-1958.

(2.) The petitioner was, at the time of the filing of this petition, the President of the Oppicherla Panchayat in the Palnad Taluka of the Guntur District. After the Madras Village Panchayats Act, 1950 (X of 1950) (hereinafter referred to as the Act) was enacted, the revenue village of Oppicherla was declared to be a village under the provisions of Section 3 of the Act and a panchayat was duly constituted for the village by the Inspector-General of Local Administration. The village was divided into three wards and the elections to the Panehayat were held on the basis of the said division during the years 1953 and 1956. On 26-3-1957 the Panchayat Board passed a resolution requesting the Government to divide the village into four wards. On the basis of this resolution, the Government called for reports from the Additional District Panchayat Officer, Guntur South and the Inspector-General of Local Administration and on 23-5-1958 issued G. O. Ms. No. 1255 L. A. in and by which they directed the division of the village into four wards. The aforesaid Order of the Government purports to have been made in exercise of the powers conferred by Section 128 of the Act. By the same order, the Government directed the Regional Inspector and the Additional District Panchayat Officer, Guntur to take action for including Varalakshmipuram in the Panchayat limits and to notify the wards as indicated therein. On 28-8-1958 the Regional Inspector of Local Administration issued a notice to the Oppicherla Panchavat calling for its views with regard to the proposed division. On 14-10-1958, the Panchayat Board passed a resolution unanimously accepting the proposal. But it appears that some of the villagers made representations to the Government opposing the division into four wards. In their Memo No. 126868-1-58 dated 30-4-1959. the Government rejected these representations and reiterated their intention to have the village divided into four wards. There were some more representations made to the Government by the villagers requesting the Government not to proceed with the division and on further investigation, the Government decided not to disturb the status quo ante. On 22-6-1959 the Government issued another order, G.O. (Ms.) No. 1552/ L.A., canceling their earlier order and restoring the original division into three wards. On 18-7-1959 the District Panchayat Officer issued a show-cause notice to the Panchayat Board with regard to the proposal to retain the existing division. In reply thereto, the Panchayat stated that the division into four wards had already been accepted by the Government and that the District Panchayat Officer had no jurisdiction to go back upon the earlier Order.

(3.) The petitioner contends (i) that the Government have no power under Section 9 of the Act to divide the village into wards as it is only the Inspector General of Local Administration that is competent to do so; and (ii) that the Government could not exercise their revisional powers under Section 128 of the Act in the matter of the division of wards and assuming that the Government had Such a power, they, having earlier decided to divide the village into four wards, had no power to review the earlier order,