KISHORE SAMRITI Vs. STATE OF M P

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner, by way of filing this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, has called in question the constitutional validity of the M.P. Gazette Notification dated 25-8-2009, whereby the Gram Panchayats, Bisoni, Purva Tola, Tekri and Dulhapur were excluded from the area of Nagar Panchayat, Lanji. In the M.P. Municipalities Act, 1961 (hereinafter referred to as "the Act" for brevity), there is a power conferred on the Governor to include or exclude certain area from the limits of Municipal areas under Section 5-A of the Act, which reads as follows:--

(2.) In the present case, the Municipal area of Lanji was constituted by Notification dated 12-8-2008. In this Municipal area, the Gram Panchayats Bisoni, Purva Tola, Tekri and Dulhapur along with the Gram Panchayat, Lanji, were included. Apparently, objections were received by the State that the areas of Gram Panchayats Bisoni, Purva Tola, Tekri and Dulhapur into the larger area of Nagar Panchayat, Lanji, were illegally included without following procedure laid down in Section 5-A of the Act. Since the intention to include such areas as required by Section 5-A of the Act was not declared nor objections were invited before the inclusion of these areas, these objections found favour with the Government, which decided to exclude these areas of Bisoni, Purva Tola, Tekri and Dulhapur from the larger area of Nagar Panchayat, Lanji. This has been done by the Notification dated 25-8-2009. The petitioner has approached this Court for a declaration that the exclusion of the aforesaid areas from the larger area of Nagar Panchayat, Lanji, is illegal, because prior to the exclusion of these areas, the procedure prescribed by Section 5-A of the Act has not been followed. That is to say a Notification declaring the intention to exclude such areas from the limits of Municipal area was not published and objections in writing were not considered before such exclusion.

(3.) We have given the anxious consideration to the matter and we are of the view that the action of exclusion of the areas from the larger area of Nagar Panchayat, Lanji, is not illegal since the exclusion was done purely by way of rectification upon considering without calling for any objections. Thus, in the first place if the inclusion of these areas was itself found to be illegal and the Government decided to exclude those areas after considering the objections in that regard to be valid, it is necessary for the Government to resort the procedure prescribed by Section 5-A of the Act, i.e., again declaring their intention to exclude the aforesaid areas and then again inviting objections.