GULAB THAKUR Vs. CHET RAM

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner has sought review of the judgment passed by this Court on 15/10/2022 in CWP No. 1610 of 2021, whereby the writ petition filed by respondents No. 1 to 5 came to be allowed and thereby the creation of the Nagar Panchayat, Anni was quashed, however, the official-respondents were granted liberty to create the Nagar Panchayat, Anni, in accordance with law.

(2.) The petitioners claimed that even though they are affected parties being the elected representatives of the Nagar Panchayat, Anni, yet they were not made parties in the writ petition and, therefore, any decision passed behind their back is bad in law. In addition to that, it is claimed that this Court ought not to have quashed the entire notification constituting the Nagar Panchayat, Anni, merely, on account of non-inclusion of certain khasra numbers (about 29), which were not included in the initial proposal but were included in the official notification dtd. 27/10/2020.

(3.) According to the petitioner, as per settled law, whenever any legislation or consequential decision is sought to be interpreted, firstly violation of Constitutional right or statutory right is to be identified. Thereafter, to save the said piece of legislation/decision, secondly, the principle of reading down is applied to give harmonious construction to achieve the purpose of the legislation. Thirdly, the principle of severability is to be applied so that the offending part is removed provided the remaining part achieves the purpose and object of the legislation. In the instant case, even if 29 khasra numbers are added in the final notification which were not part of the proposed notification, at the most the final notification dtd. 27/10/2020 should have been quashed to the extent of 29 khasra numbers only and remaining about 475 khasra numbers could continue to validly constitute a legal and valid municipality.