IN THE HIGH COURT OF UTTARAKHAND AT NAINITAL Writ Petition (M/S) No. 2292 of 2017 Gufran ………Petitioner Versus District Magistrate, Haridwar & others ……..Respondents Present:- Mr. Parikshit Saini, Advocate for the petitioner. Mr. Anurag Bisaria, Standing Counsel for the State/respondent nos. 1 and 2. Mr. Kishore Kumar, Advocate for respondent no. 3. Hon’ble Sudhanshu Dhulia, J. (Oral) The petitioner before this Court is a member of Village Bodahedi, District Haridwar. Petitioner along with other persons of Village Bodahedi had initiated the proceedings for bringing a “No-Confidence Motion” against the elected Gram Pradhan, namely, Muntaheera. As per the procedure, the District Panchayat Raj Officer called the meeting to discuss the “No-Confidence Motion” against the elected Gram Pradhan which was scheduled for 20.08.2017. 2. Section 18 (5) of the Uttarakhand Panchayati Raj Act, 2016 prescribes required quorum which should be half of the total members of the Gram Sabha. Section 18 (5) of the Act reads as under:- “18 (1)….. (2)….. (3)….. (4)….. (5) The quorum for such special meeting shall be half of the total members. The motion shall be deemed passed by the more than half majority of total members of the Gram Sabha. In absence of quorum or in case of non passing of the motion a non confidence motion shall not be taken till one year against the concerning Pradhan.” 2 3. Admittedly, the total strength of the Gram Sabha is 3,226, and therefore, the half of 3,226 would be 1,613. Admittedly, on the said date, only 1,168 members were present and thus the quorum was not complete and the proceedings were dropped out. This has been challenged by the petitioner before this Court by means of the present writ petition. 4. The argument of the petitioner is that the District Panchayat Raj Officer had fixed only two hours for quorum and one hour for discussion on the “No- Confidence Motion”. This, according to the petitioner, cannot be done. 5. In view of this Court, there are no prescribed Rules. Moreover, there is nothing unfair with the procedure which has been adopted by the District Panchayat Raj Officer. There is no dispute regarding the fact that the quorum was not complete, and therefore, the “No-Confidence Motion” could not have been carried out and the same has been rightly dropped. 6. In view of the above, no interference is being called for by this Court in the matter. 7. Consequently, the writ petition stands dismissed. (Sudhanshu Dhulia, J.) 02.04.2018 Ankit/