Bombay High Court
Sow. Gangabai Vithal Bade vs The State Of Maharashtra on 14 December, 2012
Bench: A.V. Nirgude
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
BENCH AT AURANGABAD
WRIT PETITION NO. 4235 OF 2012
Sow. Gangabai Vithal Bade .. Petitioner
Age. 45 years, Occ. Sarpanch,
R/o. Hadoli, Tq. Chakur,
Dist. Latur.
Versus
1. The State of Maharashtra
ig .. Respondents
Through Secretary,
Rural Development Department,
Mantralaya, Mumbai - 32.
2. The Collector,
Collector Office, Latur.
3. The Gramsevak,
Grampanchayat, Hadoli,
Tq. Chakur, Dist. Latur.
4. Sow. Mahananda w/o. Chankarrao Chate
Age. 55 years, Occ. Household,
R/o. Hadoli, Tq. Chakur,
Dist. Latur.
5. Shri Baliram s/o. Dashrath Chikte,
Age. 47 years, Occ. Agri.,
R/o. As above.
6. Vinod s/o. Shankarrao Chate,
Age. 27 years, Occ. Agri.,R/o. As above.
Mr. R.K. Ashtekar, Advocate for the petitioner.
Mr. D.V. Tele, A.G.P. for respondent Nos. 1 & 2.
Mr. R.S. Deshmukh h/f. Mr. D.M. Hange, Advocate for
respondent Nos. 4 to 6.
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CORAM : A.V. NIRGUDE,J.
DATED : 14.12.2012
ORAL JUDGMENT :-
1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith and heard
finally with the consent of learned Counsel appearing for
the parties.
2.
As per order passed in L.P.A.No. 215 of 2012, I
heard the submissions of both the sides on merits of the
case. The question that is required to be decided is
whether the petitioner failed to hold six mandatory Gram
Sabha meetings in one financial year i.e. financial year
2010-2011. Admittedly, Gram Sabha meetings were held in
that financial year on six occasions. Admittedly, there
is gap of more than four months between first Gram Sabha
meeting and second Gram Sabha meeting. There is further
admitted position that prior to these Gram Sabha
meetings, meetings of women were not held. The
complainant is trying to take advantage of these two
lapses on the part of the petitioner. He asserted that
because of these two lapses, the petitioner incurred
disqualification as per section 7 of the Village
Panchayats Act. Learned Additional Collector also
accepted this contention and held so.
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3. In order to understand implications of section 7
of the Village Panchayats Act, one must read this section
carefully. Said section 7 reads as under :-
"7. Meetings of Gram Sabha :- (1) There
shall be held at least six meetings of the Gram
Sabha every financial year on such date, at such
time and place, and in such manner, as may be
prescribed and if the Sarpanch or in his absence
the Upa-Sarpanch fails without sufficient cause to
hold any of such four meetings, he shall be
disqualified for continuing as Sarpanch, or as the
case may be, Upa-Sarpanch or for being chosen as
such for the remainder of the term of office of the
members of the Panchayat; and the Secretary of the
Panchayat shall also if, prima facie, found
responsible of any lapse in convening such meeting,
be liable to be suspended, and for being proceeded
against, for such other disciplinary action as
provided under the relevant rules. The decision of
the Collector on the question whether or not there
was such sufficient cause shall be final:
Provided that, the Sarpanch may at any
time of his own motion, and, shall on requisition
of the Standing Committee, Panchayat Samiti, or
Chief Executive Officer, call a meeting of the Gram
Sabha within the period specified in the
requisition; and; on failure to do so, the Chief
Executive Officer shall require the Block
Development Officer to call the meeting within
fifteen days from the date he is so required to do.
The meeting shall, notwithstanding the provisions
of sub-section (3), be presided over by him or any
officer authorized by the Block Development
Officer, in that behalf.
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Provided further that, a period of not
more than three months shall be allowed to elapse
between the two meetings of the Gram Sabha:
Provided also that, if the Sarpanch or Upa
Sarpanch, as the case may be, fails to call any
such meeting within the specified period, the
Secretary shall call the meeting and it shall be
presumed that such meeting has been called with the
concurrence of the Sarpanch or, as the case may be,
Upa Sarpanch;
(2) Any officer authorised in this behalf
by the Standing Committee, Panchayat Samiti or
Chief Executive Officer by general or special order
shall have the right to speak in, and otherwise to
take part in the proceedings of a meeting of the
Gram Sabha, but shall not be entitled to vote.
(3) Unless otherwise provided in this
Act, the first meeting of the Gram Sabha after each
general election to a Panchayat and thereafter the
first meeting of every year, shall be presided over
by the Sarpanch and in his absence by the Upa
Sarpanch; and all other subsequent meetings of the
year of the Gram Sabha, shall be presided over by a
person elected by the persons present in that
meeting of the Gram Sabha.
(4) If any dispute arises as to whether a
person is entitled to attend a meeting of Gram
Sabha, such dispute shall be decided by the person
presiding, regard being had to the entry in the
list of voters for a whole village or ward thereof,
as the case may be, and his decision shall be
final.
(5) The meeting of the women members of
the Gram Sabha, shall be held before every regular
meeting of the Gram Sabha, convened under sub-
section (1).
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(6) The Gram Sabha shall have the
disciplinary control over the Government, semi-
Government and Panchayat employees working in the
village including the matters relating to their
daily attendance in the office. The annual
evaluation of such employees shall be brought to
the notice of their respective higher authorities
by the Gram Sabha.
(7) The Gram Sabha shall report to the
concerned Block Development Officer, the
irregularities, if any, committed by any of such
employees. The Block Development Officer shall
consider such report within the period of three
months from the date of its receipt. Such matters
and the actions taken thereon shall be reviewed in
the regular meetings of the Panchayat Samiti. If,
the Block Development Officer fails to dispose of
such reports within the specified period of three
months, the same shall on the expiry of the said
period, stand transferred to the Chief Executive
Officer of the concerned Zilla Parishad for
disposal, whose decision shall be final. The Chief
Executive Officer of the Zilla Parishad shall take
the decision on such reports so transferred to him,
within a period of three months from the date of
their receipt.
(8) The Gram Sabha shall select the
beneficiaries for individual beneficiary schemes of
the State, or as the case may be, of the Central
Government.
(9) The Gram Sabha shall generally fix
the date, time and place of the next meeting of the
Gram Sabha, in its previous meeting.
(10) Unless exempted by the Gram Sabha,
all the Government, semi-Government and Panchayat
employees working in the village shall attend the
meetings of the Gram Sabha.
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(11) The proceedings of every meeting of
the Gram Sabha shall be prepared and maintained by
the concerned Secretary of the Panchayat and in his
absence, the proceedings shall be prepared by any
Government, semi-Government or Panchayat employee
working in the village, such as Teacher, Talathi or
Anganwadi Sevika as directed by the Sarpanch and
the same shall be handed over to the Panchayat for
records."
4. No doubt, provisos of S.7 provided various other
requirements of Gram Sabha meetings. In addition to
Section 7, there are rules made for providing procedure
etc. of Gram Sabha meetings. Section 7 on the whole read
with rules indicates that a Sarpanch or in his absence
Up-sarpanch should at least hold six meetings of Gram
Sabha every financial year. Proviso and rules provided
inter alia that maximum period of three months is
permitted between two meetings of Gram Sabha. Sub-
section (5) of section 7 further provides that meeting of
women members of Gram Sabha should be held before the
regular meeting of Gram Sabha. In addition to this,
prescribed rules, namely, Bombay Village Panchayats
Rules, 1959 further enjoins a Sarpanch to hold first
meeting of Gram Sabha of every financial year within two
months from the commencement of the year and second
should be held in November every year. They further
provide that Gram Sabha meeting should be held also in
August and January of every year. In my view, since the
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rule in respect of disqualification is mentioned in sub-
section (1) and since it is a penal provision, strict
construction is required to be given to it. Sub-section
(1) clearly lays down a rule that only in case of failure
to hold six Gram Sabha meetings, the Sarpanch would incur
disqualification. Other requirements of meeting are not
included in sub-section (1) and so in case of non
observance of other requirements penal consequence of
disqualification is not incurred. In other words, if six
meetings are held in one financial year, but they were
not held as per remaining provisions contained in section
7 or in the rules, a Sarpanch may not incur
disqualification.
5. Second point that arose in this case is whether
the petitioner/Sarpanch incurred disqualification in case
he did not give notice of meetings. Learned Assistant
Collector held that because of want of notice, he
incurred disqualification. The rules provided that
Sarpanch is responsible for giving seven days notice of
each Gram Sabha meeting. It is observed that seven days
notice for meetings was not given by the petitioner. The
learned Assistant Collector held that because of this
lapse the petitioner would incur disqualification. I am
not in agreement with this ruling also. I would place
reliance only on sub-section (1) of section 7 when I
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would examine whether the petitioner incurred
disqualification. As said above, other lapses or
infringement of other rules and provisos, in my view will
not incur drastic result of disqualification. The
petition, therefore, should succeed on merit. The
impugned order stands set aside.
6. The writ petition is allowed accordingly. Rule
is made absolute.
[A.V.NIRGUDE,J.]
सनकु/2012/DEC12/wp4235.12 ()()()
