NIBARANA SENDHA Vs. STATE OF ORISSA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) HEARD learned counsel for the petitioners and the learned counsel for the State.

(2.) THE petitioners in this writ petition have prayed for quashing the notification under Annexure -4 by which the Government in its Panchayati Raj Department ordered that the office of the headquarters of the Grama Sasan of Grama Sogarposi in Dhenkanal Sadar Block in the district of Dhenkanal shall be situated in the village Dudhukateni. The case of the petitioners is that by notification No.19170/GP dated 20.10.2001 under Annexure -1, the Government upon reconstitution of the Grama Panchayats constituted Sogarposi Grama Panchayat having the villages Sogarposi, Arada, Parikheda, Dudhukateni and Nathua within its local area. The petitioners claim that in the said notification, the village Sogarposi was declared as the headquarters of the Grama Panchayat and rightly so, as the Grama Panchayat was named in the name of the said village. On extraneous considerations, the Government issued the notification dated 7.11.2001 under Annexure -4 shifting the headquarters of the Grama Panchayat to village Dudhukateni without any plausible reason. The petitioners have, therefore, prayed to quash the subsequent notification alleging that there was no reason for changing the headquarters from the village Sogarposi to village Dudhukateri.

(3.) COUNTER affidavit on behalf of the opp.party No.1 has been filed by the Deputy Secretary in the Panchayati Raj Department of the Government, inter alia, stating that the Government, exercising jurisdiction under Section 4(3) of the Orissa Grama Panchayat Act, selected Dudhukateni to be the most convenient village for situation of the headquarters of the Grama Panchayat of Sogarposi. Similar grounds for choosing Dudhukateni as the headquarters have been taken as in the counter affidavit filed by the opp.parties 2 to 4.