- (1.) The Gram Panchayat of village Garnala instituted proceedings under section 21 of the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act, 1952 (hereinafter referred to as the Act) against the petitioners. The matter came up before the Gram Panchayat on July 15, 1972. The Gram Panchayat inspected the spot and recorded the evidence on the question of the alleged encroachment made by the petitioners. Thereafter it directed the petitioners to remove the encroachment by August 1, 1972, and further ordered that the Gram Panchayat would meet on that date to find out whether the encroachment had been removed or not. On that date the petitioners did not appear before the Gram Panchayat, which imposed a penalty of Rs. 10/- each on the petitioners u/s 23 of the Act. The petitioners challenged this order in a revision before the learned Chief Judicial Magistrate, Ambala which was dismissed. Thereafter they came up before this Court in petition under Article 227 of the Constitution of India. It was heard by our learned brother S.S. Sandhawalia, J. The learned Judge referred the following two questions for decision by a Division Bench: (i) Does Section 23 of the Gram Panchayat Act create a criminal offence ? (ii) Is the imposition of a penalty (extending to Rs. 25/- only) under that section equivalent to a criminal conviction and a sentence of fine ? This reference has come up before us for division under these circumstances.
(2.) At the very outset Sh. G.S. Grewal, the learned counsel for the petitioners submitted that he could not draw the attention of the learned Judge to some of the binding precedents of this Court. The first can on this point is Narain Singh and another v. The State,1959 PunLR 93. The question before the Full Bench was whether the proceedings before the Gram Panchayat under sections 21 and 23 of the Act were judicial proceedings or not. The Bench observed as under :- "According to section 38 of the Act, which occurs in Chapter IV "Criminal Judicial Functions", the criminal jurisdiction of a Gram Panchayat shall be confined to the trial of offences specified in schedule 1-A. That schedule includes offences under the Act, viz., under sections 23 and 109, and in dealing with such offences the Gram Panchayat obviously discharges criminal judicial functions in accordance with the procedure laid down in Chapter IV and Chapter VI so far as it may be applicable". In Dharman v. The Gram Panchayat of Village Kurar,1968 CrLJ 938, a learned Judge of this Court held that the imposition of fine under section 23 of the Act without following the procedure prescribed in section 46 of the Act was illegal. In Chuharia v. Gram Panchayat (Sabha) Joona Khera,1970 PunLJ 395, a Division Bench of this Court of which my learned brother S.S. Sandhawalia, J., was a member, held that the order of the Gram Panchayat imposing fine under section 21 of the Act, in absentia, was void and illegal.
(3.) A reference to the above mentioned authorities will show that while recording proceedings under section 23 of the Act, a Gram Panchayat exercises criminal judicial functions. An accused person may be present before the Gram Panchayat at one stage of the proceedings and he may absent himself at a later stage. Section 46 of the Act expressly provides that in such an event, the Gram Panchayat shall report this fact to the nearest Magistrate who shall issue a warrant for the arrest of the accused and shall direct by endorsement on the warrant that if such person executes a bond with sufficient sureties for his attendance before himself, he shall be released from custody. When such a person appears before the Magistrate, he shall then call upon him to execute a bond with or without sureties to appear before the Panchayat. On the failure of the accused to execute such a bond the Magistrate shall order that the accused be produced in custody before the Gram Panchayat, Sarpanch or any Panch.;