DULI CHAND Vs. STATE OF HARYANA AND ORS.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE question referred to this Full Bench is: Whether the State Government in exercise of the powers conferred by Sub -section (1) of Section 95 of the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952, can delegate its powers exercisable under Sub -section (2) of Section 102 of the said Act, to the Deputy Commissioners in respect of Gram Panchayats within their jurisdiction.

(2.) SECTION 102 of the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952, as applicable to the State of Haryana and as amended up to date (hereinafter called the Act) reads as follows:

(3.) THE language of Section 95 is plain and does not in our opinion admit of any exception to the power of delegation thereby conferred on the appropriate authorities. It is significant that wherever the Legislature desired the power of delegation to be circumscribed within certain limits or the power to delegate any particular function by any particular authority named in the Act being excluded from the operation of Section 95, it has been specifically so provided. For example, Sub -section (6) of Section 95 authorises the Deputy Commissioner to delegate any of his powers of control to an officer not, below the rank of an Extra Assistant Commissioner or to a District Panchayat Officer. Sub -section (1) of Section 102 authorises the Deputy Commissioner to suspend a Panch during the course of an inquiry. The proviso to Sub -section (8) restricts the Deputy Commissioner's power of delegation so as to exclude from its scope the authority to delegate his powers under Section 102 of the Act, i.e., to suspend a Panch or to remove one in exercise of his delegated authority. The authority conferred on the Government under Sub -section (1) of Section 95 to delegate any of its powers under the Act has been conferred by the Legislature subject to only one exception, namely, the power to make rules, and to no other exception.