LAWS(P&H)-1980-10-24

GRAM SABHA BEGOWAL Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

Decided On October 03, 1980
GRAM SABHA, BEGOWAL Appellant
V/S
STATE OF PUNJAB Respondents

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Whether Section 241 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911, (hereinafter called the Act), is ultra vires Articles 14 and 19 of the Constitution of India, being arbitrary and giving no guideline as to under what circumstances the State Government should create a notified area committee without affording a hearing to the inhabitants of the locality, is the primary point which the full bench is called upon to determine in this set of four writ petitions before us.

(2.) In order to decide the aforesaid point it, will suffice to notice the facts of C.W. P. No. 276 of 1979. In the area of Village Begowal, tehsil and district Kapurthala, a Gram Sabha was constituted under the Punjab Gram Panchayats Act, 1952. Fresh election for the Gram Panchayat was notified to be held on 16th of August, 1978, but that election was not held as the government proposed to declare the area in village Begowal as a notified area under Section 241 of the Act. The Governor of Punjab, in exercise of powers conferred under Section 241 of the Act, issued notification dated 19th of October, 1978, published in the Punjab government Gazette on 27th of October,1978, declaring the local area comprising village Begowal in the Kapurthala district, the boundaries of which were described in the Schedule annexed to the notification, to be a notified area for the purpose of the said Act. An extract from the said notification has been attached as Annexure P-1 to the writ petitionen. The Gram Sabha, Begowal, and a member thereof, filed the writ petition on 24 th of January, 1979, in this court to challenge the aforesaid notification and in para 4 thereof it was stated that no notification under Section 242 of the Act had been issued enforcing all or some of the section of the Act in the notified area and if there is any, the petitioner sought liberty to challenge the same. In the written statement it was alleged that the notification dated 2nd of February, 1979, had been published in exercise of power under Section 242 of the Act applying certain section of the Act to the notified area committee. The Challenge to the vires of Section 241 and 242 of the Act was on the following grounds:-

(3.) In the written statement, all the aforesaid points have been controverted and it is pleaded by the State that the notifications are valid, Ss. 241 and 242 of the Act are intra vires as there is enough guideline provided in these section and it is not necessary that a hearing must be afforded to the petitioner or that there must be a provision for affording a hearing.