Gram Panchayat – Respondent No. 1 was elected as Village Sarpanch in general elections of Gram Panchayat – Members of the Gram Panchayat moved resolution expressing no-confidence against respondent No.1 – Resolution passed by requisite majority on 19.10.2020 – Respondent No.1 carried the matter before the Collector, who, vide order dated 31.12.2020 held that no-confidence motion was required to be ratified by Special Gram Sabha conducted in the village in presence of an Independent Officer appointed by the Collector – Respondent No.1 filed Writ Petition which was allowed by the High Court – Before Supreme Court, plea of appellants that the High Court ought not to have set aside the resolution passed by the Gram Panchayat; and at best, it ought to have directed to take follow up steps as required in terms of the decision of the Collector – Respondent No. 1, however, submitted that as per guidelines issued by State Government, the resolution was required to be placed for consideration before the Special Gram Sabha at least within 10 days from the date of Collector’s order and since that period had expired long back, the process cannot be continued further – Held: Respondent No.1 was unable to point out any provision in the Village Panchayat Act which postulated that if the proposed resolution was not placed before the Gram Sabha within specified time, the same would lapse in law – In absence of such a provision, it cannot be assumed that the resolution had lapsed in law, merely because of some direction issued by concerned department of State Government – The no-confidence resolution was challenged by respondent No.1 before the process of ratification could be taken forward by the Collector – After the decision of the Collector, the matter travelled to the High Court once again at the instance of respondent No.1 and finally before Supreme Court – Respondent No.1 cannot be allowed to take advantage of that situation by placing reliance on administrative instructions – No confidence motion passed on 19.10.2020 and confirmed by the Collector vide order dated 31.12.2020 to be taken forward in accordance with law.
As published in the Supreme Court Reports, Supreme Court of India. Text from the Indian Supreme Court Judgments open data set (Dattam Labs), CC BY 4.0.
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