Allahabad High Court
Ram Bahadur And 51 Others vs State Of U.P. And 6 Others on 6 October, 2023
Bench: Pritinker Diwaker, Ashutosh Srivastava
HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT ALLAHABAD ?Neutral Citation No. - 2023:AHC:192367-DB Chief Justice's Court Case :- PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION (PIL) No. - 2288 of 2023 Petitioner :- Ram Bahadur And 51 Others Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 6 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Abhijeet Mukherji Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.,Azad Rai,Sarvesh Kumar Hon'ble Pritinker Diwaker,Chief Justice Hon'ble Ashutosh Srivastava,J.
Heard Sri Abhijeet Mukherji, learned counsel for the petitioners and learned Standing Counsel for the State Respondents.
The instant writ petition styled as Public Interest Litigation has been filed seeking directions to the Respondent Nos.3 & 4 namely the District Magistrate, Prayagraj and the Sub Divisional Magistrate, Tehsil Soraon, District Prayagraj to implement the communication dated 01.09.2023 as well as the noting dated 12.09.2023 and to declare the election conducted on 11.08.2023 regarding allotment of fair price shop of village Saraibaju, Vikas Khand Holagarh, Tehsil Soraon, District Prayagraj as null and void. A further prayer for direction to the District Magistrate to conduct the re-election at Primary School Saraibaju, Holagarh, Soraon Prayagraj in a free and fair manner within a fixed time has been prayed for.
It is the case of the petitioners, who are 52 in number that they are bonafide residents of the village concerned and have a say in the matter for allotment of fair price shop for the village in question. The District Magistrate/ Respondent No.3 vide letter dated 20.07.2023 notified the election for allotment of fair price shop in the village Saraibaju, Tehsil Holagarh. The allotment is reserved for scheduled caste quota (female) for the year 2023-24. The Block Development Officer, Holagarh is stated to have issued a communication dated 27.07.2023 to the Secretary/Pradhan, Gram Panchayat Saraibaju intimating him that the earlier date fixed for the purpose of the said election i.e. 26.07.2023 has been rescheduled for 11.08.2023 and requiring him to make public announcement about the open meeting of the Gram Panchayat to be held on 11.08.2023.
It is the case of the petitioners that the meeting for holding of such election for the purposes of allotment of fair price shop is generally held at Prathmik Pathshala, Sarai Baju, however, this time the said open meeting was held at the Panchayat Bhawan Village Saraibaju, Block Holagarh, Tehsil Soraon on 11.08.2023 without the knowledge of the petitioners and other villagers and the Respondent No.7 was allotted the fair price shop. It has been submitted that the open meeting of the Gram Panchayat has been held clandestinely and is not fair. It has been also argued that on the representation of the Petitioner No.1 namely Ram Bahadur dated 09.08.2023 the Sub Divisional Officer, Soraon, Prayagraj order dated 10.08.2023 had ordered that the meeting be held at the Prathmik Pathshala itself but the said order was totally ignored. It has, thus, prayed that the entire election/allotment in favour of the Respondent No.7 be set aside and reelection/fresh allotment be ordered.
We have heard learned counsel for the petitioners and have perused the record. From the records we find that necessary steps were taken by the concerned authorities to apprise the residents of the village about holding of the open meeting of the Gram Panchayat for the purposes of allotment of the fair price shop by making public announcements and pasting the notice on poles in the village that the meeting would be held at the Gram Panchayat Bhawan. We are not impressed by the submission of the learned counsel for the petitioners that the meeting was got done clandestinely and as such is liable to be set aside and reelection/re-allotment ordered. We are satisfied that the needful had been done by the authorities before holding the open meeting of the Gram Panchayat at the Panchayat Bhawan. We see no reason why the meeting was required to be held at Prathmik Vidyalaya.
In view of the above, we are not inclined to entertain the Writ (PIL) and the same is dismissed with a cost of Rs.10,000/- to be deposited by the petitioners with the Registrar General of this Court within a week failing which the said amount shall be recovered from the petitioners as arrears of land revenue. On receipt of the amount the same shall be transmitted to the High Court Legal Services Authority.
Order Date :- 6.10.2023 pks (Ashutosh Srivastava, J) (Pritinker Diwaker, CJ)