IN THE HIGH COURT OF PUNJAB AND HARYANA AT CHANDIGARH. Civil Writ Petition No. 13243 of 2008 DATE OF DECISION : JANUARY 22, 2009 DILBAG SINGH & ANR. ....... PETITIONER(S) VERSUS STATE OF PUNJAB & ORS. .... RESPONDENT(S) CORAM : HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE AJAI LAMBA PRESENT: Ms. RK Thind, Advocate, for the petitioner(s). Mr. HS Brar, DAG, Punjab. Mr. KS Kahlon, Advocate, for respondents 5 to 7. AJAI LAMBA, J. (Oral) In this petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, challenge is to the action of the respondent-State whereby the number of Panches for Village Manga Sarai, Block Majitha, Tehsil and District Amritsar, have been reduced from 7 to 5. The contention of the learned counsel for the petitioners, essentially, is that the actual population of the village requires 7 Panches. In this regard, reliance has been placed on Annexure P-1 i.e. a document issued by the Headmistress, Government Elementary School, Manga Sarai (Amritsar). Learned counsel for the respondent-State states that the Civil Writ Petition No. 13243 of 2008 2 number of Panches has been fixed as per census and, therefore, no legal infirmity can be traced in the action of the respondent-State. I have considered the issue. As per section 2(zn) of the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, 1994 (for short 'the Act'), "Population" means “the population as ascertained at the last preceding census of which the relevant figures have been published”. As per provisions of Section 10 of the Act, for the purpose of constitution of a Gram Panchayat, for population exceeding 200 but not exceeding 1000, the number of Panches provided is 5. Learned counsel for the respondent-State has pointed out that as per the census of 2001, which is the last census, the population of the village is 895. In view of the facts and circumstances of the case, particularly the provisions of Section 2(zn) read with Section 10 of the Act, no ground for interference is made out. The petition is dismissed. January 22, 2009 ( AJAI LAMBA ) Kang JUDGE