UJAGAR SINGH Vs. STATE OF PUNJAB

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The question that arises for consideration in these two petitions-Ujagar Singh V. State of Punjab, Civil Writ No. 2489 of 1967, and Bihari Lal Sarpanch V. Haryana State, Civil Writ No. 416 of 1968 before this Bench, is the meaning and scope of enquiry in sub-sections (1) and (2) of section 102 of the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952 (Punjab Act 4 of 1953), and the power and scope of the Deputy Commissioner to make an order of suspension under sub-section (1) of section 102 of the very same Act

(2.) It is common ground that in both the petitions the Deputy Commissioner concerned suspended each petitioner who is a Sarpanch of his particular Gram Panchayat, under sub-section (1) of section 102 of the Act, but without the State Government either exercising its own powers under sub-section (2) of section 102 of the Act the Director of Panchayats, as its delegate under section 95 of the Act, exercising the same powers, having ordered an enquiry against the particular petitioner under sub-section (2) of section 102 of the Act. Bihari Lal's case first came for hearing before my learned brothers Mahajan and Gurdev Singh, JJ., on February 27, 1968, who being of the opinion that there appeared to be a certain measure of inconsistency between Piyare Lal V. The Deputy Commissioner, Hoshiarpur and another, 1966 2 ILR(P&H) 20 and Ram Ditta Singh V. The Deputy Commissioner, Ferozepur, 1968 70 PunLR 341 on the question as above, referred the matter to a larger Bench. In the wake of that reference, when Ujagar Singh's case came before Shamsher Bahadur, J., for hearing on April 19, 1968, the learned Judge referred that case also to the same larger Bench. This is how these two cases have come before this Bench.

(3.) To appreciate the question that arises in these cases it is necessary to first make reference to the relevant parts of sub-sections (1) and (2) of section 102 of the Act, which read -