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Karnataka High Court

Sri Nagesh Mullapudi vs The State Of Karnataka on 1 December, 2020

Bench: Chief Justice, S Vishwajith Shetty

                             1

     IN THE HIGH COURT OF KARNATAKA AT BENGALURU

      DATED THIS THE 01ST DAY OF DECEMBER, 2020

                       PRESENT

      THE HON'BLE MR. ABHAY S.OKA, CHIEF JUSTICE

                            AND

     THE HON'BLE MR. JUSTICE S.VISHWAJITH SHETTY

     WRIT PETITION NO.12210 / 2020 (LB-RES) PIL

BETWEEN

Sri.Nagesh Mullapudi
S/o Venkata Rao
Aged about 40 years
R/o Shanthinagar Village
Gorebal Hobli
Sindhanur Taluk
Raichur District-584 128.         .....PETITIONER

(BY Sri.Bhanuprakash V.G, Advocate)

AND:

1.     The State of Karnataka
       Department of Rural Development
       And Panchayat Raj
       Multi Storied Building
       Dr.Ambedkar Veedhi
       Bangalore-560 001
       Represented by its
       Secretary.

2.     The Deputy Commissioner
       Raichur District
       Raichur-509 129.
                               2

3.   The Thasildar
     Sindhanur Taluk
     Raichur District
     Raichur-584 128.

4.   The State Election Commission
     KSCFM Building (Behind)
     No.8, 1st Floor
     Cunningham Road
     Bangalore-560 052
     Represented by its Secretary. ..RESPONDENTS

(By Sri.Vijaykumar A.Patil, AGA for R-1 to R-3;
    Sri.K.N.Phaneendra, Senior Counsel for
    Smt.Vaishali Hegde, Advocate for R-4)

      This Writ Petition is filed under Articles 226 &
227 of the Constitution Of India, praying to issue
direction to R-2 to consider declaring Shanthinagar as
a new Gram Panchayat area prior to the ensuing
elections to be declared for the year 2020 vide
Annexure-E , etc.

      This Petition coming on for Orders this day,
through Video Conferencing, Chief Justice made the
following:

                       ORDER

Heard the learned counsel appearing for the petitioner, the learned Additional Government Advocate for the first to third respondents and the learned senior counsel appearing for the fourth respondent/State Election Commission. 3

2. The prayer in this petition under Article 226 of the Constitution of India is for issuing a writ of mandamus directing the second respondent/Deputy Commissioner to declare Shanthinagar as a new Gram Panchayat area prior to the ensuing elections of Grama Panchayat.

3. We find that under sub-section (1) of Section 4 of the Karnataka Gram Swaraj and Panchayat Raj Act, 1993 (for short, 'said Act 1993'), there is a power vesting in the Deputy Commissioner to declare any area to be a Panchayat area. In the present case, the petitioner has not even applied to the Deputy Commissioner requesting him to exercise powers under Section 4 of the said Act 1993. The elections of Grama Panchayats in the State have already been declared. The elections were overdue as in case of none of the Panchayats, election was completed before the outer limit provided in Article 243E of the Constitution of India.

4. Therefore, there is no question of postponing the election programme, which is already declared.

5. Before seeking a writ of mandamus, the petitioner ought to have made a proper representation to the Deputy Commissioner. He has not done that. Therefore, no relief can be granted in this petition.

6. Accordingly, we dispose of the writ petition by passing the following order:

(a) Subject to what is observed above, no relief can be granted in this writ petition. However, it will always be open for the petitioner to make appropriate application/representation to the Deputy Commissioner for exercise of powers under Section 4(1) of the said Act 1993. If such a representation is made, the Deputy Commissioner shall decide the same as expeditiously as possible;

(b) We make it clear that we have not made any adjudication on the question whether a new Grama Panchayat deserves to be formed.

(c) All contentions in that behalf are left open.

Sd/-

CHIEF JUSTICE Sd/-

JUDGE KNM/-