Judgment

VENKATARAMIAH, J.:- The State of Gujarat and the Development Commissioner of the State of Gujarat have filed Civil Appeal No. 359 of 1978 under Article 136 of the Constitution against the Judgment dated January 28, 1977 passed in Special Civil Application No. 309 of 1975 on the Me of the High Court of Gujarat. The respondents Nos. 1 to 5 in the above appeal were the petitioners in the aforesaid Special Civil Application. They had filed the said application with the leave of the High Court in a representative capacity for and on behalf of themselves and other officers and servants who were originally in the employment of several municipalities which had been constituted under the Bombay District Municipal Act, 1901 (hereinafter referred to as the Municipal Act) and who were working as the employees under gram panchayats or nagar panchayats which were established in the place of the municipalities referred to above under the provisions of the Gujarat Panchayats Act, 1961 (Gujarat Act No. VI of 1962) (hereinafter referred to as the Panchayats Act) under Article 226 of the Constitution requesting the High Court to issue an appropriate writ, order or direction to the State of Gujarat and others who had been impleaded as respondents therein directing them (i) to pass orders regarding the appointment of the persons for and on whose behalf the said application had been filed in equivalent posts in the Panchayat Service of the State Govt. fixation of their seniority and pay scales and allowances in the equivalent posts with retrospective effect and payment to them of the difference in salary and allowances to which they would become entitled on such fixation of salary and allowances payable to them, (ii) to frame rules providing for promotional avenues to them in the Panchayat Service as also in the State Service and (iii) to extend to them the benefits flowing from the pay revisions ordered by the State Government on the basis of the recommendations of the first Pay Commission (Sarela Commission) and the second Pay Commission (Desai Commission) retrospectively. They also prayed for certain incidental reliefs.

2. Writ Petitions Nos. 4266 to 4270 of 1978 were filed by them before this Court under Article 32 of the Constitution in a representative capacity with the leave of this Court requesting the Court to declare the Gujarat Panchayats (Amendment), Ordinance, 1978 (hereinafter referred to as the Ordinance) as unconstitutional, void and of no effect and to grant them such reliefs as may be permissible consequent upon such declaration. After the above writ petitions were filed, the Ordinance was repealed and replaced by the Gujarat Panchayats (Third Amendment) Act, 1978 (Gujarat Act No. 28 of 1978) (hereinafter referred to as the Amending Act). Thereafter the petitioners prayed for an amendment of the writ petitions requesting the Court to permit them to question the validity of the Amending Act in so far as it adversely affected them. Their prayer was accordingly granted. The writ petitions are contested by the State Government.

3. For purposes of convenience, respondents Nos. 1 to 5 in Civil Appeal No. 359 of 1978 who are also Petitioners in the writ petitions Nos. 4266 to 4270 of 1978 are hereafter referred to as the petitioners.

4. Before the Panchayats Act was enacted there existed in the State of Gujarat a number of municipalities constituted under the Municipal Act and the petitioners and those whom they represent in these proceedings by virtue of the leave granted to them to prosecute these proceedings in a representative capacity were employees of such municipalities.

5. The Panchayats Act was enacted for the purpose of consolidating and amending the law relating to village panchayats and district local boards in the State of Gujarat with a view to reorganise the administration pertaining to the local Government in furtherance of the object of democratic decentralisation of powers in favour of different classes of panchayat