(1)The State Government may, by notification, declare any local area comprising a revenue village or a group of revenue village or a Forest villager or Tea Garden area or hamlets forming part of revenue village or Forest village or Tea Garden area or other such administrative unit or part thereof to be a Gaon Panchayat with population of its territory not less than six thousand and more than ten thousand;Provided that, where a group of revenue villages or Forest Villages or Tea Garden areas or hamlets or other such administrative units or part thereof is declared to be a village, the village shall be known of as revenue village, hamlet, administrative unit or part thereof as the case may be, having the largest population.[Provided further that the local area of Gaon Panchayats declared under the provisions of the Assam Panchayat Act, 1994 (Assam Act No. XVIII of 1994) with a population less in number or more in number than the population earmarked in this section shall continue to be valid for the purposes of this Act.](2)After consultation with the Gaon Panchayat, if it had already been established, the Government may, by similar notification, at any time -(a)Include within or exclude from any village, any local area or otherwise, from the limit of any village: or(b)declare that any local area shall cease to be a village and thereupon the local area shall be so excluded from the limit of the village so altered.(3)Every Gaon Panchayat shall be a body corporate by the name of ............... Gaon Panchyat having perpetual succession and a common seal, with power to acquire and hold property both movable and immovable, whether within or without the limits of the village over which it has authority and may in its corporate name sue and be sued.
