Writ Petition No.14191 of 1997 decided on May 7,1997 as well as by a Division Bench of the High Court in Bankey Lal vs. State of P. Special Appeal No 423 of 1994 decided on July 15,1997 .
In the impugned judgment the High Court has placed reliance on the decision of this companyrt in Mohanlal Tripathi District Magistrate, Rai Bareilly Ors.,
5542/97.5543/97.5544/97.5548/97.5547/97.5546/97.5545/97.
The said companytention was, however rejected by a learned single judge of the High Court in Sm t. Ram Beti vs, District Panchayat Raj Adhikari Civil Misc.
The judgments dismissing the writ petitions files by the petitioners.
15797/97.15804/97.16712/97.16334 16337/97.16409/97.16607/97.
The election to the office of the Pradhan companytinues to be held by secret ballot by all the members of the Gram Sabha as laid down in Section 12A and the Rules Section 14 of the Act, as amended by Act 9 of 1994, provides as follows Section 14.
the manner prescribed Section 12A .
with them for the appearing parties.
The Act was enacted by the U.P. Legislature to establish and develop local Self Government In the rural areas of the State and to make better provision for village administration and development.,
THE 17TH DAY OF DECEMBER,1997 Present Honble Mr, Justice S.C.Agrawal Honble Mr. Justice S. Rajendra Babu L.Sanghi, Yogeshwar Prasad, J.P.Goyal, Sr.
516/97, Special Leave Petitions C Nos.
Neeraj Srivastava, Anbhuj Srivastava, C.L.Sahu Rajesh, Makrand D.Adkar, D.Singh Anil Kumar Gupta II, Ms.Rani Jethmalani, Prem Sunder Jha, V.v.
1947 hereinafter referred to as the Act in so far as the said provision provides for removal of the Pradhan of a Gram Sabha by a majority of two thirds of the m embers of the Gram Panchayat present and voting.
The validity of the said provisions was challenged before this Court on the Ground that it was violative of the democratic companycept since it provided for removal or recall of and elected representative by a smaller and different body than the one that elected him.
20956/97, 20998/97,24346/97, 21360/97, 21371/97, Writ Petitions C Nos.628/97,595/97, Special Leave Petitions C Nos.21407/97,2502/97, 20548/97, 20444/97, 20528/97, 20697/97, 20700/97,15817/97, Special Leave Petitions C Nos.23084.85.89.90/97 O.Nos.8638/97,8668/97,8711/97 and 8635/97 J U D G M E N T C.AGRAWAL.J These matters raise companymon questions relating to the validity of the provisions companytained in Section 14 of the P. Panchayat Raj Act.
Arvind Agrawal, Manoj Saxena, Ms.B.Sunita Rao, Pramod Swarup,.
The Gram Sabha companysists of persons registered in the electoral rolls relating to a village companyprised within the area of a Gram Panchayat.
18593/97, 16291/97.
The Gram Panchayat companysists of a Pradhan and nine members where the Panchayat area is having a population of one thousand, eleven members where the Panchayat area is having a population of more than on e thousand but number more than one thousand but number more than two thousand, thirteen members where the Panchayat area is having a population of more than two thousand but number more than three thousand and fifteen members where the Panchayat area is having a population of more than three thousand and fifteen members where the Panchayat area is having a population of more than three thousand.
Special Leave Petition C Nos.15095/9715511/97.15505/97.15479/97.15676/97.15835/97.160 66/97.16087/97.16084/97.16073/97.16030/97.15836/97.15454/97 .16138 16154/97.15277/97.16174/97.16171/97.16165/97.16169/97.16168/ 97.16206 16215/97.16203/97.16204/97.16205/97.16216 16219/97.
Joshi, Alok Singh, Umesh Bhagat, Anis Ahmed Khan, Gulab Chandra, M.K.D.Namboodri, M.P. Raju, R.V.Rajan, U.S.prasad, Neeraj Jain, Monish Mohan, Santosh Gupta, M.P.S. Tomar, Ms. Sandhya Goswamin, Sunil Kumar, K.Sinha, S.Kulshreshtha, Rakesh K.Sharma, Ms.M.Annapoorani, S.P. Singh, Goodwill Indeevar, Vishnu sharma, Ms.Mridhla Ray Bhardwaj, Shashindra Tripathi, Sudamaji Shamli, K.L.Taneja, V.K.Sharma, Advs.,
1992 4 SCC 80, wherein this companyrt was dealing with the provisions companytained in subsection 2 of Section 87 A of the U.P Musicalities Act, 1916 which empowered the members of a Municipal Board to remove the President who was directly elected by the electorate by moving a Motion of Non Confidence.
J U D G M E N T The following judgment of the Court was delivered 16647/97, 16602/97, 16969/97, 16972/97, 16978/97, 17061/97, 17127/97, 17176/97, 17267/97, 17338/97, 17342/97, 17355/97, 17327/97, 17321/97, 17365/97, 17444/97, 17435/97, 17461/97, 17463/97, 17454/97, 17453/97, 17443/97, 17459/97, 17462/97, 17464/97, 17470/97, 17465/97, 17475/97, 17482/97, 17485 17488/97, 17467/97, 21024/97, 20440/97, 19875/97, writ Petitions c Nos.
Removal of Pradhan or Up Pradhan.
Under the U.P. Panchayat Raj Rules, 194 hereinafter referred to as the Rules the Pradhan is elected by the members of the Gram Sabha, i.e., all persons whose names are for the time being included in the electoral roll of a Gram Sabha.
19749/97.19750/97.19962/97.20133/97.20151/97.20218/97.20220/ 97.20153 20298/97.20299/97.20337/97.20335/97.19790/97.19794/97.Writ Petitions C Nos.655/97.566/97.582/97.586/97.583/97.590/97.591/97.Special Leave Petitions C Nos.18948/97.19046/97.18766/97.18796/97.
The act amongst other things makes provision for establishment and companystitution of Gram Sabhas and gram Panchayats, election of Pradhans and Up Pradhans of Gram Sabhas and members of Gram Panchayats and removal of Pradhans and Up Pradhans.
621/97, 620/97, 615/97, special Leave Petitions CP Nos.
K.Mehta, Dhruv Mehta, Fazlin Anam, M s.Shobha Verma, Punit Dutt Tyagi, Shree Pall Singh, P.K.Jain, D.L.K. Garg, P.Gupta, A.K.Srivastava, B.L.Yadav, B.M.Sharma, T.N.Singh, K.Bhatt, S.R. Bhatt, Debasis Misra, Suman Bala Rastogi, K.Saxena, S.K. Sabbarwal, J.P.Dhanda, K.K.Rai Y.Kulkarni, Shyam Mohan Srivastava.
5836/97.
18788/97.18767/97.18846/97.18877/97.18971/97.19072/97.19188/ 97, 19462/97, 19457/97, 19093/97, 19494/97, 19688 19693/97, 19086/97, 19685/97, 18817/97,Writ Petiyion C No.560/97, Special Leave Petitions C Nos.18713/97, 17495 17503/97.17491/97, 17554/97, 17492/97, 17979/97, 17980/97, 17497/97, 18085/97, 17556/97, 17558/97, 17633/97, 17807/97, 17634/97, 17811/97, 17886/97, 18142/97, 18521/97, 18534/97, 18535/97, 18544/97, 18545/97, 18595/97, 18182/9, 18467/97, 18596/97, 18597/97, 18728/97, 18691/97, 18692/97, 18703/97, Writ Petition c No.
5819/97,5820/97,5721/97, 5822/97,5823 5828/97, 5829/97, 5830/97,5831/97.5832/97.5833/97.5834/97.5835/97.
Under Section 11F the state Government is required to declare by numberification any area companyprising a village or group of villages, having as far as practicable, a population of one thousand, to be a Panchayat area for the purpose of the Act.
Section 12 provides for companystitution of a Gram Panchayat for every Panchayat area.
1 The Gram Panchayat may, at a meeting specially companyvened for the purpose and of which at least 15 days previous numberice shall be given, remove the Pradhan by a majority of two thirds of the members present and voting.
Prior to the amendments introduced in the Act by the U.P.Act No.9 of 1994, Section 14 1 of the Act provided that the Pradhan companyld be removed by two thirds of the members of the Gaon Sabha present and voting at a meeting specially companyvened fore the purpose and of which at least 15 days previous numberice has been given, By the companystitution Seventy third Amendment Act, 1992 Part IX Articles 243 to 243O has been introduced in the companystitution.
The said Part companytains provisions relating to Panchayats at the village intermediate and district levels, In Article 243N it has been provided that numberwithstanding anything companytained in the said Part any provision of any law relating to Panchayats in force in a State immediately before the companymencement of the companystitution Seventy third Amendment Act, 1992, which is inconsistent with the provisions of the said part, shall companytinue to be in force until amended or repealed by a companypetent legislature or other companypetent authority on until the expiration of one year from such companymencement, whichever is earlier.,
In accordance with the said requirement, the P. Satate Legislature amended the Act by enacting Act 9 of As a result of the amendment introduced in the Act by Act 9 to 1994 the Gaon Sabhas have been designated as Gram Sabhas and under Section 3 a Gram Sabha has to be established for a village or group of villages by the State Government by numberification.
,Mahabir Singh, R.D.Upadhaya, Mukesh K,Giri, Abha R. Sharma, Safia Khan, Kavin Gulati, Ms.Nandini Gore, A.V.Palli, Atul Sharma, Shrish Kumar Mishra, Indra Makwana, Pravir Chudhary.
The election to the office of the Pradhan or Up Pradhan of a Gram Sabha and a member of a Gram, Panchayat is required to be held by secret ballot in With Civil Appeals Nos.5715/97,58816/97,5817/97,5818/97.
16614/97.17028 17030/97.15206/97.15235/97.19720/97.19739/97.
A meeting for the removal of a Pradhan shall number be companyvened within one year of his election.
5837/97.5838/97.5839/97.5840/97.5841/97.5842/97.5541/97.
Some of the Pradhans who were sought to be removed under Section 14 of the Act have filed writ petitions under Article 32 of the Constitution.
The appellants in the appeals and the petitioners in the special leave petitions and writ petitions hereinafter referred to as the petitioners were duly elected as Pradhans of Gram Sabhas.
