IZAZUL HAQUE Vs. STATE OF WEST BENGAL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) BY consent of the parties, the appeal is treated as on the day's list and as agreed to by the parties we propose to dispose of both the appeal and the application for interim order.

(2.) THE only point urged in this appeal arising out of the judgment and order passed by B. C. Ray, J. on the 23rd of September, 1980, is whether nominated members of a Gram Panchayat are members of the said Panchayat and whether they enjoy the right to participate in any voting in any meeting of the members of the Gram Panchayat. B. C. Ray, J, for reason stated in his judgment, has came to the conclusion that the nominated members of a Gram Panchayat are members of the Gram Panchayat and they enjoyed the right to participate and vote, if any voting is called for, in a meeting of the Gram Panchayat. In this appeal, the correctness of the finding of B. C. Roy, J. has been challenged. The learned "advocate appearing in support of this application has drawn our attention to section 4 of the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973. Section 4 provides for the constitution of a Gram Panchayat and also for the electorate of the Panchayat members of the Gram Panchayat. The said section further provides that every Gram Panchayat shall be a body corporate having perpetual succession and a common seal and shall, by its corporate name, sue and be sued. Our attention was next drawn to section 7. The said section deals with the term of office of members of Gram Panchayat. It has been urged that no nominated member is considered to be a full member of the Gram Panchayat in the same sense of an elected member of a Gram Panchayat. Next, the nominated members will not be liable to be removed like other elected members of the body corporate. Section 210 of the Act provides for nomination which reads as follows :

(3.) IT is made clear that the said section empowers the State Government to appoint persons in terms of the said section and the persons so appointed become members of the Gram Panchayat. Our attention has already been drawn to section 7 of the West Bengal Panchayat (Amendment) Act, 1978 (West Bengal Act X of 1978) by which section 210 of the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973 has been amended, and on a plain reading of the section we are clearly of the opinion that the persons appointed under section 210 of the Act by the State Government become members of the Gram Panchayat and are entitle to all the rights and privileges members of a Gram Panchayat enjoy. There is nothing in the Act, as far as it has been suggested, either expressly or by any implication, that the persons so appointed by the State Government will not be entitled to enjoy the rights and privileges which are enjoyed by the other elected members of the Gram Panchayat.