(1)In this section unless the context otherwise requires-(a)"appointed day" means such date as the State Government may, by notification in the Official Gazette appoint;(b)"an existing panchayat" means a gram panchayat, taluka panchayat or district panchayat existing immediately before the appointed day, and where any such panchayat has been superseded or dissolved includes the person or persons appointed to exercise the powers or to perform the functions of such panchayats;(c)"the successor panchayat" means a village panchayat, taluka panchayat or district panchayat constituted under this Act for such local area as corresponds to the respective local area of the existing gram panchayat, taluka panchayat or district panchayat.(2)With effect on, and from the appointed day the Gujarat Panchayats Act 1961 shall stand repealed and the following consequences shall ensue, that is to say-(a)all property, movable and immovable, and all interests of whatsoever and kind therein, which vested in an existing panchayat, immediately before the appointed day, shall be deemed to be transferred to, and shall vest in the successor panchayat, subject to all limitations, conditions and rights or interests of any person, body or authority in force or subsisting immediately before the appointed day;(b)all rights liabilities and obligations of an existing panchayat (including those arising under any agreement or contract) shall be deemed to be the rights, liabilities and obligations of the successor panchayat;(c)any functions relating to recovery of land revenue and cesses under the Land Revenue Code and law relating to collection of cesses; any functions of district school boards; any functions under the Gujarat Co-operative Societies Act, 1963 and any functions of the State Government under any enactment or any other function of the State Government, transferred to an existing panchayat under the repealed Act shall be deemed to have been transferred to the successor panchayat under this Act;(d)all sums due to an existing panchayat, whether on account of any tax or otherwise, shall be recoverable by the successor panchayat and for the purposes of such recovery the successor panchayat, shall be competent to take any measure or institute any proceedings which it would have been open to an existing panchayat, or any authority thereof to take or institute before the appointed day;(e)the unexpended balance in the Gram Fund, Taluka Fund, District Fund, or as the case may be, District Family Welfare Fund constituted under the Repealed Act and all sums due to an existing panchayat and such sums of any other body or bodies as the State Government may direct shall form part of, and be paid into, the respective village fund, taluka fund, district fund or, as the case may be, District Family Welfare Fund of the successor panchayat constituted under this Act:(f)the unexpended balance in the State Equalisation Fund District Equalisation Fund, District Gram Encouragement Fund and District Development Fund established under the Repealed Act shall form part of and paid into corresponding fund established under this Act:(g)all contracts made with, and all instruments executed by or on behalf of an existing panchayat shall be deemed to have been made with, or executed by or on behalf of the successor panchayat, and shall have effect accordingly:(h)all proceedings and matters pending before the existing panchayat or any authority of an existing panchayat, under the Repealed Act immediately before the appointed day, shall be deemed to have been instituted and to be pending before the successor, panchayat or such authority as the successor panchayat may direct;(i)in all suits and legal proceedings pending on the appointed day in or to which an existing panchayat, is partly, the successor panchayat, shall be deemed to be substituted thereof;(j)any appointment, notification, notice, tax, fee, order, scheme, licence, permission, rule, bye-law, regulation or form made, issued imposed or granted in respect of the local area of an existing panchayat under the Repealed Act and in force immediately before the appointed day, shall, in so far as it is not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, continue to be in force as if made, issued, imposed or granted in respect of the corresponding local area of the successor panchayat under this Act until superseded or modified by any appointment, notification, notice, tax, fee, order, scheme, licence, permission, rule, bye-law, regulation or form made, issued, imposed or granted under this Act;(k)all budget estimates, assessments, assessment lists, valuations, or measurements made or authenticated by or in respect of an existing panchayat under the Repealed Act and in force immediately before the appointed day shall, in so far as they are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Act, be deemed to have been made or authenticated by the successor panchayat;(l)all officers and servants in the employment of an existing panchayat immediately before the appointed day, shall, subject to the provisions of this Act be deemed to be transferred to the service of the successor panchayat;(m)any reference in any law or in any instrument to the provision of the Repealed Act, or any authority constituted, elected or appointed thereunder shall, unless a different intention appears, be construed as a reference to the corresponding provisions of this Act, or as the case may be, to the corresponding authority constituted, elected or appointed under this Act.
