M.L.Chaturvedi, J. - (1.) This is a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution.
(2.) Elections were held in different villages for electing members to the Gaon Panchayat, and a number of persons were duly elected. The circle of the Nyaya Panchayat of the locality consists of ten Gaon Sabhas and two Panches from each Gaon Sabha are to be selected for appointment as Panches to Nyaya Panchayat. The prescribed authority for making the selections is the District Magistrate of the district as provided by Section 43 of the Panchayat Raj Act. Paragraph 6 of the affidavit, filed along with the petition, says that the District Magistrate asked for names of the members who were eligible for appointments as Panches of the Nyaya Panchayat, and the Sub-Divisional Officer of Bisalpur sent a list of such persons to the District Magistrate. The Sub-Divisional Officer in his turn consulted the Tahsildar before sending up the names. Under certain orders of the Government, there is a committee appointed comprising of the District Magistrate as the Chairman, one member of the Legislative Assembly and the President of the District Board as members. Selections were made to the Nyaya Panchayat and, from the Gaon Sabha of the petitioner, respondents Nos. 2 and 3 were selected as Panches to the Nyaya Panchayat. While the matter was still before the Sub-Divisional Officer, it appears that an objection was raised to the selection of respondent No. 3 on the ground that he was below 30 years of age and was thus not eligible for selection. The objection was presumably overruled by the District Magistrate and the appointments were made as mentioned above. After the appointments, the present petition was filed on the 5th September, 1956 praying that a writ of mandamus be issued directing the respondent No. 1 (the District Magistrate) to appoint the petitioner as a Panch to the Nyaya Panchayat and that a writ of quo warranto be issued asking the respondents Nos. 2 and 3 to show by what authority they claimed to be Panches of the Nyaya Panchayat.
(3.) The first contention of the learned Counsel for the petitioner is that the appointments of respondents Nos. 2 and 3 were made by a committee and not by the District Magistrate, and under the law it is only the District Magistrate who is authorised to make the selections and not the committee. Section 43 of the U.P. Panchayat Raj Act says that the prescribed authority shall appoint such number of persons as may be fixed to be Panches of the Nyaya Panchayat. This section confers power on the prescribed authority, and Section 2(q) of the Act says that the prescribed authority means an authority to be notified as such by the State Government whether generally or for any particular purpose. The Government has by a notification dated December 1, 1956, appointed the District Magistrate to be the prescribed authority for purposes of Section 43 of the Act. It is thus clear that the appointments to the Nyaya Panchayat have to be made by the District Magistrate.;