Ramendra Jain, J. - (1.) In this writ petition filed under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioners have, inter alia, prayed for issuance of a writ of Certiorari for setting aside the impugned order dated 17.05.2016 (Annexure P-9). Further, a writ of Mandamus has been sought directing the respondents to exclude the village Asawarpur, Block Rai, District Sonepat from inclusion in the Municipal Corporation, Sonepat vide notification No. 18/82/2015-3C1 dated 03/06.07.2015 (Annexure P-1) by upgrading and declaring the Municipal Council, Sonepat including adjoining rural areas as shown in drawing No. MCS(1/2015) dated 01.06.2015 as Municipal Corporation, Sonepat.
(2.) Put pithily, the petitioners are the residents of village Asawarpur, Block Rai, District Sonepat, which along with other 26 villages had been included in the Municipal Corporation, Sonepat vide aforesaid notification Annexure P-1 illegally and arbitrarily, without inviting any objections, following the proper procedure and without affording an opportunity of hearing. The population is the sole basis for declaring the Municipal Committee to Municipal Council, Municipal Council to Municipal Corporation and Municipal Corporation to Metropolitan area. According to the last census of 2011, the total rural and urban population of Sonepat comes to 3,74,675 including the population of 27 villages. The villages have been included just to fulfil the conditions of population of three lacs, despite the fact that most of the villages were having huge financial funds. Even otherwise, many other villages situated near the city of Sonepat have been left out, whereas the petitioners' village though situated at a distance of 27 Kms. from the city was included in the Municipal Corporation, Sonepat without giving any logic behind it. Even no resolution of the Gram Panchayat of petitioners' village was obtained which was necessarily required before inclusion of a village in Municipal Corporation. The village of the petitioners had already been adopted by Haryana Urban Development Authority (HUDA) in the year 2006 and, therefore, there was no necessity to include it into Municipal Corporation, Sonepat. As per guidelines and criteria issued by the Government of Haryana for the formulation of Municipal Corporation, the Government has to keep in mind the urban character of the area i.e. 60% of the population should be predominantly engaged in non-agricultural activities on the basis of last census, whereas 75% of the rural areas in the State of Haryana are involved in agricultural activities. In the year 2010, a similar effort was made, but due to objection of the villagers, the same was turned down.
(3.) After hearing learned counsel for the petitioners and giving our thoughtful consideration to the submissions made by learned counsel for the petitioners, we find that the present writ petition is completely devoid of any merit.;