UDARAM Vs. ADDITIONAL COLLECTOR GANGANAGAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS is a writ petition under Article 226 of the Constitution by one Udaram and by it he questions the validity of an order of the Additional Collector, Ganganagar, Ex. 3 on record, whereby the Additional Collector had set aside an order of the Panchayat Samiti, Mirzewala (now Ganganagar) holding that an appeal decided by the Panchayat Samiti was not maintainable. The circumstances leading to the order under challenge may be outlined as follows :. I

(2.) ON 8-1-61 respondents Pemaram and Jaimal Singh made an application before the Gram Panchayat of Maderan that a plot of abadi land Qila No. 138/2 measuring 300 sq. yards situated in village Maderan be sold to them. The Panchayat held an auction for this plot and eventually it was sold to the applicants Pemaram and Jaimal Singh. The grievance of the petitioner Udaram was that this sale was made by the Panchayat in contravention of the Panchayat and Nyaya Panchayat (General) Rules, 1961, hereinafter to be referred as the "rules" It was submitted that no public auction was held and nor were notices inviting objections to the proposed sale published in accordance with the Rules. Generally it was stated that the provisions of rules 255 to 265 prescribing the procedure for sale were not followed. ON 23 9 63 the petitioner made an application before the Panchayat Samiti, Mirzewala within 30 days of the sale for setting aside the sale in favour of respondents Nos. 4 and 5, Pemaram and Jaimal Singh. The Panchayat Samiti by its order dated 7-8-64, set aside the order of the Gram Panchayat for the sale of the land in question holding that the land formed part of a common village Chowk and further the relevant rules had not been followed. The Panchayat Samiti also observed in its order that the Gram Panchayat had not obeyed the injunction issued by the Panchayat Samiti in this behalf. Aggrieved of this order of the Panchayat Samiti respondents Nos. 4 and 5 approached the Additional Collector, Ganganagar in appeal, but the Additional Collector treated this appeal as revision and on 26 7-66 he revised the order of the Panchayat Samiti and restored that of the Gram Panchayat. The learned Additional Collector came to the conclusion that the Panchayat Samiti had no jurisdiction to entertain the appeal. The Additional Collector, however, did not deal with the other points arising in the case. The essentials of the reasonings of the Additional Collector will be evident from the following passage in his order under challenge : - "the counsel for the revision petitioners contends that Udaram had only filed an ordinary application before the Panchayat Samiti on 23-9-63 which was treated by the Panchayat Samiti as an appeal and was accordingly disposed of. The application was not accompanied with the copy of the order of the Gram Panchayat. The Advocate for the non-petitioner urges that Udaram had filed an appli-cation before the Panchayat Samiti and the same had been treated as appeal, because the language of that application would conform to the characteristic of an appeal and it was not necessary to file the copy of the order. I have perused the relevant provisions and have also perused the papers. There are rules for appeal under the Civil Procedure Code and rule 77 of the Rajasthan Panchayat and Nyaya Panchayat (General) Rules contains the same provision. In my opinion, the application filed by Udaram before the Pancha-yat Samiti could under no circumstances be treated as an appeal. The order passed by the Panchayat Samiti, Mirzewala on 7-8-64 is against law, because the application could not be treated as an appeal. " (Translation of the passage is mine)