DARSHAN SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) PETITIONERS who are residents of village Harigarh, Tehsil Pehowa, District Kurukshetra have filed this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution challenging the action of the State Government in amalgamating Gram Panchayats of two villages namely Harigarh and Bhorakh Madadan in the District of Kurukshetra.

(2.) PRIOR to the year 1988 there was one Gram Panchayat for the two villages Bhorakh Madadan and Harigarh known by the name of Gram Panchayat Bhorakh. The residents of both the villages represented to the State Government as also to the Deputy Commissioner to declare both the villages as separate Sabha areas to that separate Gram Panchayats could be established for each of them. It was represented that the villages were large enough to have separate Gram Panchayats and that the bifurcation would put an end to the long-standing disputes between the residents of the two villages regarding their representation in the Panchayat. It was stated that as a result of disputes between the residents of the two villages, no development work was carried out. The previous Gram Panchayat Harigarh Bhorakh had also passed a resolution in March, 1987 wanting bifurcation of the Gram Panchayat. The Block Development and Panchayat Officer also recommended two separate Panchayats for these villages. The Deputy Commissioner of the District Examined the representation of the residents and referred the matter to the Director, Panchayats, Haryana with a recommendation that both the villages deserved separate Gram Panchayats in public interest. The recommendation of the Deputy Commissioner seems to have been accepted since the State Government as per its notification of June 30,1988 declared the two villages as separate Samba areas under Section 4 (1) of the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') and constituted separate Gram Panchayats for each of them known as Gram Panchayat Bhorakh Madadan and Gram Panchayat Harigarh. Thereafter, elections to the newly constituted Gram Panchayats were held in accordance with the provisions of the Act and the Rules framed thereunder. Some of the defeated candidates challenged the action of the State government in bifurcating the Gram Panchayat Bhorakh into two Gram Panchayats by filing Civil Writ Petition No. 7124 of 1988 on the ground that two Samba areas namely Bhorakh Madadan and Harigarh could not be declared out of one revenue estate and that there could be only one Sabha-area for each revenue estate or group of revenue estates. The writ petition was allowed by a learned Single Judge holding that two Sabha-areas could not be established out of one revenue estate of Harigarh Bhorakh and the notification of June 30,1988 was quashed. Gram Panchayat Bhorakh went up in appeal before a Division Bench which was allowed and it was held that the Government was competent to carve out any number of Sabha-areas in a village which bears a revenue estate subject to the condition of population of five hundred people. The order of the learned single Judge was set aside and the notification constituting separate Gram Panchayats by declaring the two villages as separate Sabha-areas was upheld.

(3.) ELECTIONS to the Gram Panchayats in the State of Haryana were again held in December, 1991. The State Government as per its practice declared by its notification of December 18, 1991 (Annexure P-7) with the writ petition) some villages or group of villages to be Sabha-areas and also established a Gram Panchayat for each of such Sabha-areas by the names specified in the schedule to the notification. It will be seen that village Bhorakh Madadan and Harigarh were declared as different Sabha-area with separate Gram Panchayats. Immediately, thereafter on the same day the State Government in partial modification of its notification December 18, 1991 and in exercise of its powers under Sub-section (1) of the Sections 4 and 5 of the Act amalgamated the two Sabha-areas and, consequent, the Gram Panchayats. It is this amalgamation of the two Gram Panchayats that has been impugned in the present writ petition.