BALWANT SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) Twenty-four electors of village Nasrali, sub-tehsil Amloh, tehsil Nabha, district Patiala, have filed this writ petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India seeking to restrain respondent Nos. 4 to 9 from functioning as the Gram Panchayat of their village. The Panchayat Elections to this body had been held on 26.6.1972 and had been organised by the State of Punjab and its officers, respondent Nos. I to 3, under the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952 (hereinafter briefly referred to as 'the Act'). Respondent Nos. 4 to 9 had been returned as the successful members of the Gram Panchayat.

(2.) The entire election proceedings are challenged by the petitioners on the ground that no proper notification demarcating the Sabha area for their village had been issued by the Government under Section 4 and that the number of Panches who were to constitute the Gram Panchayat had not been notified under Section 6 of the Act. The relevant extracts from the Act are reproduced below so that these contentions could be properly appreciated :-

(3.) In the returns filed by the respondents, there is no reference to any notification issued by the Government with regard to the demarcation of the Sabha area for this Panchayat under Section 4. The enclosure to the return filed on behalf of the Director of Panchayats is a notification under Section 6 of the Act which relates to some village by the name of Nasrali which is described to be situated in Sirhind Tehsil of Patiala district. Nasrali is a common name and we have so many villages of the name in other districts like Ludhiana, Amritsar, Hoshiarpur etc. There is nothing in the returns filed on behalf of the respondents to show that there is no village of that name in tehsil Sirhind or that the references in the notification dated 2nd June, 1972 (Annexure R-1) are necessarily to village Nasrali of sub-tehsil Amloh in tehsil Nabha of Patiala District. Section 6(1) of the Act does not say that the number of Panches who would constitute the Gram Panchayat for a particular Sabha area must be specified in a notification or that the notification should be published in the official gazette. It is the actual practice, however, that a notification under Section 6(1) specifying the number of members who would constitute the Gram Panchayat for a particular Sabha area appears in the official gazette. No notifications under Sections 4 and 6(1) of the Act may appear to have been published in respect of the Sabha area of village Nasrali which forms part of the Amloh sub-tehsil in Nabha tehsil of district Patiala. No Panchayat elections could be held for this Sabha area unless proper notifications had been published under these Sections. The Government had first to specify the number of Panches to be elected and this number had to depend on the population of the Sabha area as demarcated under Section 4 of the Act. There has been no demarcation of the Sabha area or the specification of the number of Panches constituting the Gram Panchayat. This number could not possibly be speciied unless the limits of the Sabha area had been demarcated by a notification under Section 4(1). The number of members constituting the Gram Panchayat was to depend on the population in the Sabha area so demarcated. As neither the area nor the population can be ascertained, the number of members that shall constitute the Gram Panchayat cannot be and have not been specified. The entire election proceedings held by the respondents may, therefore, appear to be vitiated by the absence of any proper notifications under Sections 4 and 6 of the Act.