STATE OF GUJARAT & ANOTHER v. RAMAN LAL KESHAV LAL SONI & OTHERS

Citation: [1983] 2 S.C.R. 287

Court: Supreme Court of India

Bench: Y.V. CHANDRACHUD, S. MURTAZA FAZAL ALI, V.D. TULZAPURKAR, O. CHINNAPPA REDDY, A. VARADARAJAN

Case summary

(6) To consider the question of making suitable prov1s1ons in the Gujarat Pancbayats Service (Promotion to Cadres in State Service) Rules, 1974 or by framing appropriate Rules for promotion of the ex-municipal staff of the Panchayat Service to consider the question of...

Judgment text

STATE OF GUJARAT & ANOTHER v. RAMAN LAL KESHAV LAL SONI & OTHERS January 27, 1983 [Y. V. CHANDRACHUD, CJ, S. MURTAZA FAZAL ALI, V. D. TULZAPURKAR, 0. CH! NNAPPA REDDY AND A. VARADARAJAN, JJ. ] Gujarat Panchayat Act, 1961-As amended by the Gujarat Panchayat (Third Amendment) Act, 1978-0fficers and servants of the panchayats-Whether Government servants. Mast~r and servant relations-Tests for the determination of. •'' Constitution of India, 1950, Articles 14 and 311-Status of Government ' servant-Ifcould be determind retrospectively. Interpretation-Legislature, if has power to take away or impair a consti· tutional right retrospectively. The Gujarat Panchayats Act, 1961 was enacted to consolidate and amend the law relating to village panchayats and district local boards with a view to reorganise the administration pertaining to local G. overnment in furtherance of the object of democratic decentralisation of powers in faVour of different classes of panchayats.

It was provided that the state Government should exercise control over panchayats either directly or thrvugh such officer or officers as it may appoint for that purpose. The Panchayat Organisation consisted of Gram Panchayats, Taluqa Panchayats and District Panchayats which are bodies (1 corporate with perpetual succession and common seal. Notwithstanding that they were separate bodies corporate, the panchayats formed part of the \. panchayat organisation set up for secudng a greater measure of participation by tlie people in the-local governmental functions. They were enjoined to perform :functions and duties assigned by or under the Act so• as to ~confonn to the State :plans, National plans and the State policy in general. The State Government was empowered to cause inspection to be made and to call for and examine the 'record of the proceedings of any panchayat.

On the enactment of the 1961 Act, 1 the District Local Boards, village panchayats and municipalities constituted under earlier Acts stood transformed as District Panchayats, gram or nagar pancbayats, depending on population. Officers and servants of the District Local Boards were deemed to be transferred to the service of the district panchayats, Secretaries, officers and servants in the employ of the old village panchayats became Secretaries, officers and servants of the new gram panchayats and officers and servants in the em,pior of municipalities became oflicers al\d servan. t' of . the interim p1nchayats, ~'·---~ 288 SUPllBME COURT llBPOllTS (1983) 2 s. c. R. The gram pancbayats were entrusted with the work of looking -after sanitation and health, public works, community development, agriculture, preservation of forests and a number of other subjects.

They were entrusted \ with the work of collection of land revenue and do any or all the functions and duties of village Accountant or Patel or other similar functions of any other person in relation to the collection of land revenue and dues recoverable as ,arrears of land revenue. Provision had been made in the Act for the transfer to the District Pancb! }yats of such powers, functions and duties relating to any matters as are exercised or perform. ,d by the State Government or ao)I officer of the Government under any enactment which the 'State Legislature is competent to enact or otherwise in the executive power of the Seate. The Act also provided that any functions and duties relating to any of the matters specified in the paochayat functions list, previously being performed by the State Government, shall be transferred to the District Paachayats togetlicr with the funds provided and the staff employed tberefo:r.

On such transfer, the District Panchayat may delegate, with the approval of the Government, to any panchayat subordinate to it any of the functions and duties so transferred. A fund called the Gram Fund or Nagar Fund was created and the proceeds of any tax or fee imposed by or assigned to the Pancbayat under the Act, sums contributed to the fund by the State Governmt:nt and all other sums received by the Panchayat were to be credited in the fund. The Act provided for appointment of a Secretary and such other ser~ vants as may be determined for every Gram Panchayat and Nagar Panchayat in ac:ordance with rules prescribed by the Gov~rncnent. Depending on the facts and circumstances of a case, the State GJverament may direct that a group of Pa. nchayats sliall have one Secretary only. The Secretary and other servants -- Tarkunde for the Petitioners in MPs. and R. R. 1-3 and in CA. 359. D. V. Patel, C. V. Subba Rao, Dy. Govt. Advocate, M. N. Shroff, G. N. Desai and R. N.

Poddar for the Appellant in CA. 359 and RR 1 and 2 in Wl's. GUJARAT v. RAMAN LAL (Chinnappa Reddy, J. ) 293 Vimal Dave and Miss Kai/ash Mehta for tbe Intervener in W,P. Mukul Mudgal for Respondent No. '9 in CA. 359/79 and for Respondent No. 6 in WPs. The Judgment of the Court was delivered by CHINNAPPA REDDY, J. The attitude of the State of Gujarat in these cases has indeed left us puzzled and wondering.

On the one hand, there are lakhs of employees working under various Panchayat Institutions, call ·them Government servants or no, to whom the benefits of the recommendations of the two Pay Commissions, the Sarela and the Desai Commissions, have been extended, while on the other hand, there is a microscopic number (comparatively) of about six thousand employees of the lowest category, also working under Pancbayat Institutions, who are denied the benefits of those recommendations, on the sole ground of a birth-mark, if we may so call it, since they are denied the benefits because before they came to work under the Panchayat Institutions, they were employed in municipalities while the others were Government servants to start with. The unfairness and the injustice of the distinction is patent, whatever legal justification may be put forward.

Surely, the State, dedicated as it is to socialism, equality and economic justice and enjoined by the Directive Principles to secure the right to work, a living wage, equal pay for equal work and so on cannot make such a distinction. But the distinction has been made; it is sought to be sustained by those making it and we are constrained to examine whether there is any Constitutional or other legal sustenance for the distinction. We did request the Counsel for the State of Gujarat to communicate with his clients to find out if the benefits cannot gracefully be extended to the erstwhile employees of municipalities presently working under Panchayat Institutions also. We are told that the answer of the State of Gujarat is in the negative. ' The appeal and the Writ Petitions were heard once before by a Constitution Bench consisting of Chandrachud, CJ, Sarkaria, Untwalia, Kailasam and Venkataramiah, JJ. The opinion of the Constitution Bench was pronounced by Vcnk, taramiah, J.

, on July 13, 1980. (The opinion is reported in [1981] l SCR 144). But on the application of the appellants, the opinion was set aside and the appeal and the Writ Petitions were directed to be set down for hearing once more by the Constitution Bench. That is how the matters have again come before us. [1983] 2 s. c. R. Pursuant to the Constitutional mandate in Art. 40 that "the State shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to function as units of self-Government", the State of Gujarat enacted the Gujarat Panchayats Act 1961 (Act No. VI of 1962) 'to consolidate and amend the law relating to village Panchayats and district local boards with a view to reorganise the administration pertaining to local Government in furtherance of the object of the democratic decentralisation of powers in favour of different classes of Panchayats'. The Gujarat Panchayats f\ct 1961 was substantially amended in 1978 in an attempt, as .

we shall presenily point out, to circumvent the judgment of the Gujarat High Court which is under appeal before us. The Constitutional validity of the Amending Act is in question in the Writ Petitions which are before us. We shall first refer to the provisions of the Gujarat Panchayats Act, as they stood before they were amended in 1978. By s. II (l) of the Act, as it originally stood, a Panchay at Organisation was • constituted for the State of Gujarat, consisting of Gram Panchayats, Taluqa Panchayats, District Panchayats, Gram Sabhas, Nyaya Panchayats and Conciliation Panchas. It is provided by Section 11 (2) that the State Government shall exercise control over Panchayats either directly . or through such officer or officers as it may appoint for that purpose.

Local areas comprising of revenue villages or groups of revenue villages or hamlets forming parts of revenue villages or other administrative units or parts thereof are to be declared Grams under the Act, if the population of the local areas does not exceed I0,000 and Nagars if the populatio. n of the local areas exceed 10,000 but does not exceed 20,000. There is to be a Gram Panchayat for each Gram and Nagar Panchayat for each Nagar. There is also to be a Taluqa Panchayat for each taluqa and a District Panchayat for each district, as constituted from time to time under the Land Revenue Code. The Gram Panchayat, the Nagar ·Panchayat, the Taluqa Panchayat and the District Pancbayats are to be bodies corporate with perpetual succession and common seal. Sec.

8 prescribes the hierarchy and provides that, subject to the control of the Government, a Gram Panchayat is to be subordinate to the Taluqa Panchayat and the District Panchayat, while a Nagar Panchayat and Taluqa Panchayat are to be subordinate to the District Paochayat. While the Gram Panchayats, Nagar Panchayats, GUJARAT v. RAMAN LAL (Chinnappa Reddy, J. ) 29S Taluqa Panchayats and District Panchayats are to be bodies corporate, Sec.

287 makes it explicit that, notwithstanding that they are ) separate bodies corporate having distinct territorial jurisdiction and territorial functions to perform, the Gram Panchayats, Nagar Pachayats, Taluqa Panchayats and District Panchayats shall form part of the panchayat organisation, set up for the purpose of securing a greater measure of participaiion by the people of the State in local government functions and shall perform the functions and duties assigned to them by or under the Act so as to conform to the State plans, National plans and the State policy in general, and also so as to give effect to general or special directions as may be issued by the State Government. Sec. 292 (A) aqd Sec. 305 authorise the State Governm~nt to cause inspection to be made and to call for and examine the record of the proceedings of any panchayat. .

· At this juncture, we may mention that prior to the enactment of the Gujarat Panchayats Act, 1961, there were in force in the State of Gujarat the Bombay Village Panchayat Act, 1958, the Bombay Local Boards Act, 1923, the Bombay District Municipal Act, 1901 and the Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act, 1925. The Bombay Village Panchayat Act 1958 and the Bombay Local Boards Act, 1923 are repealed by Secs. 325 and 326 of the Gujarat Village Panchayats Act, 1961. A local area declared to be a village under the Bombay Village Panchayats Act, 1958 and Panchayat constituted under that Act, are deemed to be gram and panchayat under the Gujarat Gram Panchayats Act, 1961. The Secretaries and all officers and servants under the employment of the old village Panchayats are to be Secretaries, Officers and servants of the new gram panchayats. A District Local Board constituted under the Bombay Local Boards Act for a local area is to stand dissolved.

All property which stood vested in the district local board immediately before the appointed day is to be deemed transferred to the district panchayat constituted for the local area, called the successor panchayat. All officers and servants in the employment of the District Local Board are similarly to be deemed transferred to the service of the successor panchayat. Where local areas are declared to be grams or nagars under Sec. 9 of the Gujarat Gram Panchayats Act, 1961 and such areas correspond to the limits of municipal district or municipal borough under the Bombay District Municipal Act or Bombay Municipal Borough Act, it is provided by Sec. 307 of the Gujarat Panchayats Act that the municipality previously functioning in such local area shall cease to exist and that the councillors of such municipality shall constitute an interim 296 SUPREMIB COURT REPORTS (1983] 2 !. C. R. gram panchayat or interim nagar panchayat as the case may be for the gram or nagar.

It is also provided that all officers and servants in the employment of the municipality immediately before the date of declaration of the Jocnl ar. ,as as gram or nagar, shall be officers and servants of the interim panchayat. Thus broadly, District Local Boards under the Bombay Local Boards Act stand transformed as District Panchayats, village panchayats under the Bombay Village Panchayats Act as gram panchayats and municipalities under the Bombay District Municipal Act and 1 Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act as gram or nagar panchayats, depending on the population. Officers and servants in ! he employ 0 of the District Local Boards are deemed to be transferred to the service of the district panchayats; Secretaries, officers and servants in the employ of the old village panchayat become Secretaries, officers and servants of new gram panchayats and officers and servants in the employ of municipalities become officers and servants of interim panchayats.

To continue our tour of inspection (if one may use such an • expression) of the provisions of the Act, Sec. 88 of the Act empowers each gram panchayat to make, in the area within its jurisdiction, and so far as the fund at its disposal will allow, reasonable provi· sion in regard to all or any of the matters specified in Sch. I. Sch. I enumerates a host of matters under the beads 'Sanitation and Health'. 'Public works', 'Education and Culture', Self Defence and Village Defence', 'Planning and Administration', 'Community Development, Agriculture, Preservation of forests and Pasture Lands', 'Animal Husbandry', 'Village Industries' and 'Collection of Land fl Revenue'. Under each of these beads innumerable subjects are specified. In regard to the collection of land revenue express provision is further made by Sec.

149 that the Government shall, notwithstanding anything contained in Land Revenue Code or any other Jaw, entrust to every Gram Panchayat and every Nagar Panchayat, any or all of the functions and duties of village Accoun' tant or Patel or other similar functions of any other person by whatever name called, in r panchayat may, fer example, carry out in the area within the limits of jurisdic. tion, any other work or measure which is likely to promote health, safety, education, comfort, convenience or social or economic or culture well-being of the inhabitants of the area including secondary education. A panchayat is also required to carry out the directions or orders given or issued from time to time by the State Government for the amelioration of the condition of scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, and other backward classes. Taluqa and District Panchayats are required by secs.

117 and 137 respectively to make reasonable provision in respect of matters specified in Schedules II and III. In Schedule II, a number of subjects are enumerated under the heads 'Sanitation and Health', 'Commun'tcation', 'Education and Culture', 'Social Education', 'Community Development', 'Agriculture and Irrigation', •Animal Husbandry', 'Village· and Small Scale Industries', 'Corporation'. 'Women's Welfare', 'Social Welfare', 'Relief', 'Collection of Statistics', 'Trtitts', 'Forests', 'Rural Housing,' and 'Information'. In • Schedule III, similarly, a number of subjects are enumerated under the beads 'Sanitation and Health', 'Public Works', 'Education and Other Cultural Activities', •Administration', 'Community Development', 'Agriculture', •Animal Husbandry', 'Village and Small Scala Industries', 'Social Welfare', 'Relief' and 'Minor Irrigation Projects'. Sec.

155 provides for the transfer of the functions previously performed by District School Boards under the Bombay and Saurashtra Primary Bducation Act to taluqa and district panchayats. , Sec. 156 provides for the delegation to district and taluqa panchayats such powers and functions and duties of the Registrar or any other authority under the Bombay Cooperative Societies Act, as may be specified. Sec. I51 provides for the transfer to District Panchayats of such powers, functions and duties relating to any matters as are exercised or performed by the State Government or any officer of the Government under any enactment which the State Legislature is competent to enact, or otherwise in the executive power of the State. On the transfer of such functions, the Government is also required to allot to the District Panchayats such funds and personnel as may be necessary to enable the District Panchayats to exercise the powers and discharge functions and duties so transferred. Sec.

157 (2) mentions the subjects which in particular may be transferred to the District Panchayats. Sec. 157 (3) further provides that on the transfer of powers, functions and duties under sub-Sec. (1) and (2), the District Panchayat shall, if the State Government so directs and may with the previous approval of the Government, delegate to any panchayat subordinate to it any of the functions, powers and duties so transferred and allot to such Panchayats such funds and staff as may be necessary to enable the Panchayat to discharge the functions and duties so delegated. Sec. 158 provides that any function and duties relating to any of the matters specified in the Panchayat functions list, which were previously being performed by the State Government, shall be transferred to the District Panchayats together with the funds provided and the staff employed therefor.

On such transfer, the District Panchayat may delegate, subject to the approval of the Government, to any panchayat subordinate to it a11y of the functions and duties so transferred. • Sec. 96 of the Act anthorises the State Government to vest in a Panchayat open sites, waste, vacant or grazing lands or public roads, streets, bridges, ditches, dikes and fences, wells, river banks, streams, lakes, nallas, canals, water courses, trees or any other property in the gram or nagar. Sec. 99 provides for the creation of gram and nagar funds.

Each gram nnd nagar is to have a fund called the Gram Fund or the Nagar Fund into which ar~ to be paid, inter-alia, the proceeds of any tax or fee imposed by or assigned to the panchayat under the Act, sums contributed to the fund by the State Government or the Taluqa Panchayat or the District Panchayat and all sums received by way of loans from the State Government or the Taluqa Panchayat or the District Panchayat or out of the District Development Fund or otherwise. Sec. 119 vests in the Taluqa Panchayat every road building and other work constructed by the Taluqa Panchayat any land or property transferred to the Taluqa Panchayat by the State Government and any land or property transferred by any other Panchayat. Sec. 139 vests in the District Panchayat every road GUJARAT v. RAMAN LAL (Chinnappa Reddy, J.

) ~9~ building or other work constructed by the Pancbayat, any land or property transferred to a District Panchayat by the State Govern- ) ment and any land or other property transferred to the District Panchayat by any other Panchayat. We may now refer, conveniently, at this stage to the 8 provisions relating to services. Sec. 102 provides that there shall be a Secretary for every gram panchayat and nagar panchayat, who shall be appointed in accordance with the rules. Rules, of course; hav~ to be made by the Government under Sec. 323. Sec. 102 also provides that a gram panchayat . and nagar panchayat may have such other servants as may be determined under Sec. 203, who shall be appointed by such authority and with such conditions of service, as may be prescribed. 'Prescribed' again means 'prescribed by rules' and rules have to be made by the Government.

It is further provided that having regard to the population of a gram and its income, the State Government may direct that a group of gram panchayats shall have one Secretary only. The Secretary is required to keep in his custody all records and registers of the panchayats, issue receipts on behalf of the panchayats, prepare all statements and reports required under the Act al)d perform such other functions and duties, as may be prescribed under the Act. Other servants of the panchayat are required to perform such functions and duties and exercise such powers as may be imposed or conferred on them by the Panchayat, subject to any rules which may be made. Sec. 122 provides that there shall be a Secretary for every Taluqa Panchayat and that the Taluqa Development Officer, who shall be an officer belonging to the State service and posted under the panchayat, shall be the ex-officio Secretary of the panchayat. Sec.

122 further provides that the taluqa panchayat shall have such other officers an the panchayat service and disciplinary action against. such officers and servants. The rulei were required to make provision entitling servants of such cadres in the Panchayat Service to promotion to such cadres in the State service as may be prescribed. The rules were also required to provide for inter-district transfer of servants belonging to the panchayat service. Subject to the rules made under Sec. 203, appointment to posts in the panchayat service, Sec. 205 provides, shall be made by direct recruitment by promotion or by transfer of a member of the State service to the paachayat service. Sec.

206 obliges the State Government by general or special order to allocate to the paachayat service: "(i) such number of officers and servants out of the staff allotted or transferred to a panchayat under sections (157, 158 and 325) as it may deem fit, (ia) all officers and servants of the municipalities dissolved under Sec. 307, (ii) all officers and servants in the service of district local boards and district school boards immediately before their dissolution under this Act and transferred to the pancbayats under secs. 155 and 326". It is further provided that officers and servants so allocated shall be taken over by such panchayats in such cadre and on such tenure, remu[)eration and other conditions of service, as the State Government may determine. Sec.

204 provides that, subject to the rules which the State Govern· ment may make, the expenditure towards the pay, allowances and other benefits allowed to an officer or servant of the panchayat service serving for the time being under any panchayat shall be met by that panchayat from its own fund. Sec. 207 enables the State Government to direct the posting of officers of the Indian administrative service and of Class II services of the. State under panchayat institutions. Sec. 208 enables a panchayat to obtain the services of any officer of Government on loan. Sec. 210 provides for the constitution of a Panchayat Services Selection Board and Sec. 211 provides for the constitution of District Panchayat Service .. Selection Committees and District Primary Education Staff Selection Committees.

The broad and general picture that we have on a perusal of the relevant provisions of the Act, as it stood before it was amended in 1978, is that the Gujarat Legislature aimed at the democratic \{ecentralization of important governmental functions by vestin~ 302 SUPREME COURT li. EPoiTS flc. 1831 2 s. c. i, such functions in gram, nagar, taluqa and district panchayats (see Sec. 88 read with Sch. I, Sec. 117 read with Sch. It and Sec. 131 read with Sch. III) and, besides, by enabling the State Government to transfer other powers, functions and duties to the Panchayat institutions (see Secs. 89, 149, 150, 155,1156, 157 and 158). A perusal of the lists of subjects entrusted to the Panchayat Institutions shows that they are not merely the ordinary run of subjects entrusted to municipal bodies, such as, public health, sanitation, etc.

, but they include a great variety of subjects intimately connected with all aspects of community life and vital to it, except functions, such as, Jaw and order, administration of justice and the like. Even part of the revenue administration is entrusted to panchayat institutions, as evident from the fact that collection of land revenue is one of the duties of the gram panchayats under the Act. Since decentralisation was not to mean mere chaotic fission and confusion, a threetier organisation was set up, subject to the overall control of the Government and it was as if a parallel but subsidiary or subordinate Government was set up by the Government itse. lf to discharge some of its functions. Not merely were the panchayat institutions required to discharge governmental functions, the organisation and its three-tier units were to have very close links with the Government at every twist and turn, as it were. The property of the panchayats was that which.

previously belonged to the Government but came to be vested in them or transferred to them and the funds of the panchayats were those to be provided subst antially by way of contribution or loan by the Government. The Government was not only empowered to make the rules to carry on! the objects of the Act. but also to issue directions from time to time to all or any of the panchayats. The Government was also empowered to cause inspection to be made and, further, to call for the proceedings of the panchayat, to satisfy itsetr as to the legality or propriety of any order made by the Panchayat. For the purpose of efficiently discharging the functions and duties of the various panchayat institutions and havining regard to the three-tier system which had been established, it was apparently thought necessary to constitute ,a panchayat service, the members of which would have uniform ' scales of pay and uniform conditions of service.

So a single centralised Panchayat Service was constituted which was to be 'distinct from the State Service'. The distinction Jay in that it was a service parallel to the State Service and not in that the~members of the service were not Government servants. The question GUJARAT v. RAMAN LAL (Chinnappa Reddy, J. ) 303 whether the members . of the panchayat servfoe are Government ·servants or not is the principal question to be answered in the ) appeal and we will come back. to it again later. After the coming into force of the 1961 Act, several sets of rules were promulgated and orders were made which concerned the · Gujarat Panchayat Service. One such order was that made·on January 2, 1967 under Sec. 203 (2) directing that the Panchayat service shall consist of district cadre, taluqa cadre and local cadre and further specifying the posts which belonged to each of the cadres. Amongst the rules made were the Gujarat Panchayat Service (Absorption, Seniority, Pay and Allowances).

Rules, 1965, which provided for the equation of posts, fixation of seniority, scales of pay and allowances of "allocated employees". "Allocated employees" were defined in the rules to mean persons allocated to the panchayat service under the provisions of Sec. 206 (i). The rules provide that every allocated employee holding a correspoding post, immediately before the appointed day, shall be appointed to· the equivalent post. Equivalent post is defined to mean a post· in the panchayat service, which the State Government may, by order, determine to be generally corresponding t~ a post held by an .. allocated employee immediately before the appointed day (called corresponding post) -having regard to the pay scales, the minimum educational and other qualifications prescribed for the equivalent post and the corresponding post and the nature and magnitude of responsibilities attached to such posts.

Therefore, unless equivalence of posts is first determined, by order, by 1he Government the G~jarat Panchayat Service Absorption Seniority Pay and Allowances Rules, 1965 cannot be effectively applied. Even so, the State Government did not make any order regarding equation of posts . / of the staff in the local cadre and the fixation of their scale of pay, . although such orders were made in respect of posts of other cadres. The State Government did not also extend to the staff borne on the local cadre of the panchayat service the benefit of revision of scales of pay, etc. which were made on the basis of the recommendations of the two Pay Commissions, though such benefit was. extended to the District and Taluqa cadres; nor did the Government make any order providing for promotional avenues to employees of the local cadre.

Aggrieved by the deaf ear turned to their representations, certain ex-municipal employees now included in the local cadre of the Panchayal Service, for themselves and on behalf of other ex-municipal employees now in the local cadre of the Panchayat Service, filed a Writ Petition in 'the High Court of Gujarat seeking various reliefs. The Writ Petition was resisted by the State of Gujarat and the Development Commissioner on the principal ground that the memhers of the Panchayat Service were not Government servants and therefore, they were. :not entitled to claim the reliefs asked by them. The High Court of Gujarat allowed the Writ Petition holding that the members of the panchayat service belonging to the local cadre were Government servants and directed the State Government : "(I) To make suitable orders under the Gujarat Panchayat Service (Absorption, Seniority, Pay and Allowances) Rules, 1965 as regards the equivalence of posts, fixation of P!

'Y scales for such posts, fixation of the petitioners and the person to whom they represent at an appropriate stage in such pay scales and other incidental matters covered by the said rules and to give effect to such orders from the date of allocation of the petitioners and the persons whom they represent to the Panchayat Service, that is to say, from February ll, 1969. ·, (2) To initially fix the pay scales and allowances and other conditions of service, including the grant of houserent allowance, compensatory local allowance, leave bene~ts, medical benefits, retirement benefits, etc. of the petitioners and the persons whom they represent in the equivalent posts in the Panchayat Service in accordance with the provisions of the Gujarat Panchayats Service (Absorption, Seniority, Pay and Allowances) Rules, 1965 and simultaneously give to them the benefit of such of the accepted recommendations of the First Pay Commission (Sarala Co'mmissio.

o) in the said matters as were extended to the other officers and servants of the Panchayat Service; alternatively, having initially · fixed the pay scales, allowances and other conditions of service in the equivalent post in accordance with the said rules, to revise subsequently such pay scales and other conditions of service as per the accepted recommendations of the First Pay Commission (Sarala Commission) iu t~e said mat\ers with effect from f~bruary I I, J969. GUJARAT v. RAMAN LAL (Chlnnajlpa Reddy, J. ) 305 (3) To further revise the pay scales and allowances and other conditions . of service, including the grant of ) house rent allowance, cQJllpensatory local allowance, leave benefits, medical benefits, retirement benefits, etc. of the Second Pay Commission (Desai Commission) in the said matters and to give effect to such revision on and with 11 effect from Jannary I, 1975.

(4) To extend to the petitioners and the persons whom they represent the benefit of interim relief in the same manner in which such benefit was extended to the other officers and servants of the Panchayat Service. (5) To pay to the petitioners and the persons whom they represent the amount payable to them as a consequence of the rationalisation or revision of pay scale and allowances and other conditions of service in pursuance of the directions contained. in clause. s (I) to (4) hereinabove. (6) To consider the question of making suitable prov1s1ons in the Gujarat Pancbayats Service (Promotion to Cadres in State Service) Rules, 1974 or by framing appropriate Rules for promotion of the ex-municipal staff of the Panchayat Service to consider the question of providi~g to such staff, by framing appropriate rules, promotional avenues to the other two cadres in the Panchayat Service, namely, the taluka cadre anq the district cadre".

The State Government and the Development Commissiner have filed the appeal which is now before us. But during the pendency of the appeal, in an effort to undo the basis of the decision of the High Court, the Governor of Gujarat promulgated the Gujarat Panchayats Amendment Ordinance, 1978, later ·replaced by the Gujarat Panchayats (Third Amendment) Act, 1978. The constitutional validity. of the Amending Act is questioned in the Writ ·Petitions by the ex-municipal employees now included in the local cadre. The appeal was argued first as if the Amending Act had not been passed· and the main question argued in the appeal was whether the members of the Panchayat service were Government servants. . The Writ Petitions were argued next and the question argued in the Writ Petitions w11s about the 9ol)stitl! tional validity of t4e l\men January 31, 1983. The amounts paid are to be adjusted later. P. B. R. Appeal dismissed. 8 Petitions allowed.