HON’BLE SRI JUSTICE C.V. NAGARJUNA REDDY W.P.No.14533 of 2009 Date : 21-2-2011 Between: Nalluri Venkata Subbaiah .. Petitioner And The District Panchayat Officer, Prakasam District, Ongole and others .. Respondents Counsel for petitioner : Sri M.Sudheer Kumar Counsel for respondent Nos.1 & 3 : A.G.P. for Panchayat Raj Counsel for respondent Nos.2 & 4 : Sri G.Elisha The Court made the following : ORDER: At the Interlocutory stage, the Writ Petition is taken up for hearing and disposal with the consent of the learned counsel for the parties. The Writ Petition is filed for a mandamus to set aside proceedings No.B/73/09, B/74/09 and B/75/09, dated 16-7- 2009 of respondent No.4 whereby certain works were entrusted to respondent Nos.5 and 6. The petitioner is the Sarpanch of respondent No.4- Gram Panchayat. He has pleaded that in October 2006, Functional Committees were constituted and on 17-12- 2008, a new Works Committee was constituted with the petitioner as its Chairman. O n 31-12-2008, the new Works Committee has entrusted to itself four works. This was followed by work orders issued by respondent No.2. On the ground that the said decision of the Works Committee was not valid, respondent No.1 cancelled the work orders by his order dated 2-2-2009. On 16-6-2009, five out of seven Works Committee members gave a requisition for conducting a meeting of the Works Committee. On 30-6-2009, four members issued requisition for meeting to be held on 2-7-2009. On that day, a meeting was held by the four members of the Works Committee wherein two works, namely, construction of compound wall of Primary Agricultural Co-operative Society and completion of Primary Agricultural Co-operative Society building, were entrusted to respondent Nos.5 and 6. This was followed by work order dated 16-7-2009 issued by respondent No.2. Feeling aggrieved by this decision of the Works Committee, the petitioner filed this Writ Petition. The main plank on which the Writ Petition is filed assailing the decision of the Works Committee is that the mandatory procedure prescribed under G.O.Ms.No.174, Panchayat Raj & Rural Development (Pts.IV) Department, dated 4-6-2003, was not followed as the Works Committee’s decision was not placed before the Gram Sabha for its ratification. Separate counter-affidavits have been filed by respondent No.2 and respondent Nos.5 & 6. In the counter- affidavit filed by respondent No.2, it is inter alia stated that G.O.Ms.No.174, dated 4-6-2003 has no application and that the works entrusted by the Works Committee are governed by G.O.Ms.No.37, Panchayat Raj & Rural Development (PROGS.IA) Department, dated 18-2-2005 which does not require any ratification by the Gram Sabha. The short question therefore arising for consideration in this Writ Petition is as to which of the two G.Os. is applicable for the works in question. A perusal of G.O.Ms.No.174, dated 4-6-2003 shows that the State Government, realising the imperative of the goals of Vision 2020 and for accelerating the pace of development involving people in the planning process, decided to constitute Functional Committees for every Gram Panchayat concerning different activities. One such activity is construction and infrastructure development. Para-4 of the said G.O. refers to the aim of the Functional Committees as to make the Gram Panchayats responsible for evolving suitable programmes, mobilise and distribute resources and oversee the implementation of the developmental programmes and strategies. It further envisages that the decisions of the Functional Committees shall be subject to ratification by the Gram Sabha which shall have the power to approve, modify, rescind and reverse them. Sri M.Sudheer Kumar, the learned counsel for the petitioner submitted, and in my view correctly, that the works of construction and infrastructure development in the Gram Panchayat would ordinarily take in all the works undertaken by the Gram Panchayat and therefore the said G.O. is squarely attracted. G.O.Ms.No.37, dated 18-2-2005 was issued in connection with execution of works tied up with component of rice. In paragraph-5 of the said G.O., programmes like Food for Work, National Food for Work, Indira Prabha etc., have been referred to. In the instant case, the works approved by the Works Committee are not in connection with any such programmes tied up with rice component. No doubt, G.O.Ms.No.10, Panchayat Raj & Rural Development (Progs.IA) Department, dated 10-1-2006, which was issued in modification of G.O.Ms.No.37, dated 18-2-2005, provides that the Panchayat Raj works with upper limit of Rs.5 lakhs even without rice tie-up can be undertaken by the Works Committees/Self Help Groups. However, the said G.O. refers to the guidelines issued in G.O.Ms.No.108, Panchayat Raj & Rural Development (RWS1) Department, dated 3-6-2005 to be followed in undertaking those works. The said G.O. is not placed before this court. On a consideration of the facts referred to above, I am of the opinion that keeping in view the purpose for which both the G.Os. were issued, the works approved by the Works Committee certainly fall under G.O.Ms.No.174, dated 4-6-2003. Under the said G.O., every decision of the Works Committee needs to be ratified by the Gram Sabha. This stipulation was made obviously to prevent any arbitrary decision by the members of the Works Committee and to see that the majority will of the people will prevail. Therefore, I do not find any reason for the Gram Panchayat to oppose the request of the petitioner for placing the decision of the Works Committee before the Gram Sabha which will have wider acceptance if it ratifies the decision of the Works Committee. That would indeed further the public interest as well. Accordingly, the Writ Petition is disposed of with the direction to respondent No.4 to place the decision taken by the Works Committee on 2-7-2009 before the Gram Sabha in accordance with the provisions of the A.P. Panchayat Raj Act 1994, within a period of one month from the date of receipt of a copy of this order. The entrustment of works shall depend upon the decision taken in the Gram Sabha. ____________________ C.V. Nagarjuna Reddy.,J Date : 21-2-2011 AM