Civil Writ Petition No.8252 of 1998 1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH Date of Decision:- 5.1.2011 Gulzar Singh and another ....Petitioners Versus State of Punjab and others ...Respondents CORAM: HON'BLE MR.JUSTICE MEHINDER SINGH SULLAR Present:- Mr.Vikas Singh, Advocate for the petitioners. Mr.Sartaj Singh Gill, Deputy Advocate General, Punjab. M ehinder S ingh S ullar , J. (Oral) The challenge in this writ petition is to the notification dated 18.5.1998, whereby the State of Punjab has declared and constituted village Basti Ujagar Singh a separate Gram Sabha. 2. The case set up by the petitioner, in brief, in so far as relevant, was that there was no separate/distinctive abadis of village Basti Ujagar Singh, except few houses of landlords, built in their own agricultural land connected with other houses. According to the petitioner that as neither there was a separate abadi of the name of Basti Ujagar Singh nor there were required number of votes, therefore, the constitution of its separate Gram Sabha is illegal, colourable exercise and misuse of statutory powers by the respondents. On the basis of aforesaid allegations, the petitioner sought the quashment of notification dated 18.5.1998, constituting a separate Gram Sabha, in the manner indicated here-in-above. 3. The respondent Nos.1 and 2 contested the claim of the petitioner and filed their written statement, inter-alia, pleading certain preliminary objections of maintainability of the writ petition on the sole ground that as per the notification dated 18.5.1998, new panchayat by the name of Basti Ujagar Singh has already been constituted, election thereto has also been held in the month of June, 1998, Civil Writ Petition No.8252 of 1998 2 duly elected body has already taken over the charge and started its functioning. As such according to the respondents, the writ petition becomes infructuous in this context. 4. On merits, the contesting respondents claimed that as per the representation (Annexure R1) of the residents of the village, a new panchayat in the name of Basti Ujagar Singh, having requisite number of votes, was established on the recommendation of Block Development and Panchayat Officer, Makhu, District Ferozepur. The proposal was duly countersigned by Sub Divisional Magistrate, Zira. In all, the respondents pleaded that the indicated Gram Sabha was duly established, in view of the provisions of Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 (hereinafter to be referred as “the Act”). It will not be out of place to mention here that the contesting respondents have stoutly denied all other allegations contained in and prayed for dismissal of the writ petition. 5. Controverting the allegations of written statement and reiterating the pleadings of the petition, the petitioners filed the replication. 6. Having heard the learned counsel for the parties, having gone through the record with their valuable assistance and after considering the matter deeply, to my mind, there is no merit in the instant writ petition in this context. 7. What is not disputed here is that Section 3 of the Act authorizes the Government to establish a separate Gram Sabha area, which postulates that the State Government may, by notification, declare any village or group of contiguous villagers with a population of not less than two hundred to constitute a Gram Sabha area. Proviso to this section further posits that a new Gram Sabha area may be constituted for any village or group of contiguous villages in respect of a separate distinct abadi or group of abadis having a population of not less than two hundred, taking into consideration its physical distance from the main village or villages, as the case may be and other relevant facts. Sequelly, according to Section 4, the State Government may, by notification, establish a Gram Sabha by Civil Writ Petition No.8252 of 1998 3 name for every area declared as Gram Sabha under Section 3 of the Act. 8. Ex facie, the argument of the learned counsel for the petitioner that as all the essential ingredients to constitute a new Gram Sabha, as envisaged under section 3 of the Act are not complete, therefore, the impugned notification is liable to be quashed, is not only devoid of merit but misplaced as well. 9. As is evident from the record that the residents of separate abadi of Basti Ujagar Singh moved the representation (Annexure R1), in which, it was mentioned that their abadi/basti is one and half kilometer away from the main village Phemiwala and as per census of 1991, the population of Basti Ujagar Singh is about 225. No development work has been done in the Basti for the last six or seven years and they are very painful. They unanimously decided that new Gram Panchayat of Basti Ujagar Singh be established, so that development work could be made and other difficulty could be avoided. The Block Development and Panchayat Officer duly endorsed the view and the matter was further examined at various levels by the Government. 10. Having completed all the codal formalities, the new Sabha area was established in accordance with the provisions of the Act. The declaration of constituting a new Gram Sabha area as contemplated under section 3 of the Act is general in character and based on subjective satisfaction of the Government. Creation of new Gram Sabha is within the legislative competence/domain of the Government and such action cannot be assailed on extraneous grounds in a routine manner, unless the same is constitutionally invalid and illegal or against any statutory provisions of the law. 10. An identical question arose before Hon'ble Apex Court in case State of Punjab v. Tehal Singh and others (2002) 2 Supreme Court Cases 7. Having interpreted the provisions of Sections 3 and 4 of the Act, it was ruled as under:- “The provisions of Sections 3 and 4 of the Act which provide for declaring territorial area of a Gram Sabha and establishing a Gram Sabha for that area are not concerned with the interest of an Civil Writ Petition No.8252 of 1998 4 individual citizen or a particular resident of that area. Declaration contemplated under Section 3 of the Act relates to an area inhabited by the residents which is sought to be excluded or included in a Gram Sabha. The declaration under Section 3 of the Act by the Government is general in character and not directed to a particular resident of that area. Further, the declarations so made under Sections 3 and 4 of the Act do not operate for past transactions but for future situations. Under the aforesaid situation, when declarations by issue of notifications by the Government are made under Sections 3 and 4 of the Act respectively determining the territorial area of a Gram Sabha and establishing a Gram Sabha for that area, such declarations become operative at once. Once declarations are made under Sections 3 and 4 of the Act respectively and thereafter a Gram Panchayat is constituted under Section 10 of the Act, the entire remaining provisions of the Act become operative. On such declarations by a Notification in the Gazette, the Gram Sabha, a body corporate comes into being with a number of powers and functions conferred upon it under the Act. As soon as a Gram Sabha is established and Gram Panchayat is constituted, they are entrusted with many general functions including construction, repair and maintenance of community assets, agriculture including agriculture extension, animal husbandry, dairy and poultry, promotion of adult literacy, public health and family welfare and many others. Further the Gram Panchayat is entrusted with judicial functions which are civil and criminal in nature. The power exercisable under Sections 3 and 4 of the Act respectively by the Government was, therefore, not an exercise of a judicial or quasi- judicial function where the very nature of function involves the principles of natural justice or in any case of an administrative function affecting the rights of an individual. It is, therefore, held that on making of declaration under Section 3 of the Act determining the territorial area of a Gram Sabha and thereafter establishing a Gram Sabha for that area is an act legislative in character in the context of the provisions of the Act.” 11. In the instant case, as all the essential ingredients of section 3 of the Act are complete, therefore, no fault can be found in the impugned notification. Moreover, no such illegality or legal infirmity has been pointed out by the learned counsel for the petitioners in this relevant connection. Therefore, the contrary arguments of learned counsel for petitioners “stricto sensu” deserve to be and are hereby repelled, under the present set of circumstances and the observations in Civil Writ Petition No.8252 of 1998 5 Tehal Singh's case (supra) “mutatis mutandis” are applicable to the facts of the present case and are complete answer to the problem in hand. 12. No other legal point, worth consideration, has either been urged or pressed by the learned counsel for the parties. 13. In the light of the aforesaid reasons, as there is no merit, therefore, the instant petition is hereby dismissed, in the obtaining circumstances of the case. (Mehinder Singh Sullar) 5.1.2011 Judge AS Whether to be referred to reporter?Yes/No