RAMDHAN SHARMA Vs. STATE OF RAJASTHAN AND OTHERS

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioner in this writ petition has challenged the Notification issued on 10th sept., 1992 by which the village Bhavsar-Ishwarwala has been excluded from the panchayat Mansar-Khedi. Before holding elections of the Gram Panchayats in the State, the work of establishment of the panchayat as required under Sec. 3 of the Rajasthan Panchayat Act, 1953 (hereinafter referred to as 'the Act') was started. The procedure for including, excluding and transferring any area in a panchayat circle from another panchayat circle has been prescribed in Sec. 86 of the Act, which reads as under :

(2.) The inclusion and exclusion of areas in a Panchayat Circle or from a Panchayat Circle and transfer of areas from one Panchayat Circle to another can be made at any time by the Govt. either on its own motion or at the request of the Panchayat or at the request of the residents of the village or area but before doing so, one month's notice has to be published and after publication of the notice and hearing objections as provided under the Rules, the Government can by notification in official Gazette, include any area in a panchayat or exclude any area from a panchayat circle or transfer any area from one panchayat circle to another. Rule 344 of the Rules provides for the issue/publication of notice. Under this rule after considering the report of the collector or recommendations of the Officer incharge of the Panchayats, the State Government or such officer or authority to whom the powers of State Government have been delegated to act under Sec. 86 of the Act, it shall cause a notice inviting objections to the proposed transfer or inclusion or exclusion to be issued inviting objections to the proposed transfer, inclusion or exclusion within one month from the date of publication of this notice. This notice shall be pastbd at a conspicuous place in each of the areas affected by the proposal and at the office of each panchayat and Panchayat Samiti concerned. Under rule 345 of the Rules, after considering objections received in response to the notice, the Government or the Officer or the authority to whom the powers of the Government have been delegated may either drop or may confirm or vary the same, and a final notification in accordance with the order shall be issued.

(3.) A detailed reply to the writ petition has been filed but at this stage we are only concerned with the fact whether the procedure prescribed under the law has been complied with or not in issuing the final notification changing the constitution of a Panchayat. In order to show that objections were invited, the respondents have placed reliance on Annexure R/2, which is a public notice stating that under Sec. 86 of the Act, the State Government on its own motion wants to reconstitute and redefine the boundaries of a Panchayat, any body having objections to the same may submit the same before the District Collector and the objections received after the date fixed shall not be considered. The notice further mentions that the proposals for reconstitution/re-delimitation are available in the office of the Panchayat, Panchayat Samiti and Zila Parishad which can be examined during the office hours. The notice does not specify the names of the Panchayats/Panchayat Samities where it was pasted and further the proposals about the changes which the State Government wanted to make in each panchayat have not been mentioned. Unless it can be shown that proposals for reconstitution of the Panchayat in question were mentioned in the notice and the concerned persons had an opportunity of submitting objections, this notice cannot be said to be the compliance of Sec. 86 of the Act.