JUDGMENT

SAWANT, J.:—Special leave granted.

The Constitution (Seventy-Third Amendment) Act, 1992 came into force on 24th April, 1993 to give effect to one of the Directive Principles of the State Policy, viz., Article 40 of the Constitution of India which directs the State to organize village panchayats as units of self-government.

On coming into force of the said Constitutional Amendment, the States were required by the Centre to take steps to organise village panchayats on the lines of the provisions of the said Constitutional Amendment by making law or amending the existing law suitably. The Uttar Pradesh State Legislature amended its Panchayat Raj Act, 1947 (hereinafter referred to as the Act- by enacting the U. P. Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Act, 1994 which came into force on 22nd April 1994. As per the provisions of the Act, several Government instructions and notifications were issued and rules were framed between 22nd April, 1994 and 31st August, 1994 with a view to hold elections to the panchayats. In particular the declaration of the gram panchayat areas u/S. 11-F and the establishment of the gram Sabhas under Section 3, were made between 2nd and 5th August, 1994. The term of the gram panchayats constituted under the unamended provisions of the Act was to expire on 23rd April, 1993. The Governor extended their term till 23rd April 1995 or till new panchayats were constituted, whichever was earlier. The elections to the new panchayats were then notified on 31st August, 1994. In pursuance of this notification the election process was to commence on 29th September, 1994.

The respondents approached the High Court by writ petitions between 1st and 9th September, 1994 making a grievance that the Government orders were being violated in the process of re-organisation and delimitation of the constituencies. A few of the respondent-writ petitioners also challenged the said Constitutional Amendment as well as the vires of the Act. The High Court heard all the petitions together. The State Government, by filing an affidavit as well as through publications in the press from 9th September to 19th September, 1994, offered a fresh time-schedule of the elections and also to remove the grievances after considering the representations. On 24th September, 1994, the State Government cancelled the notification dated 31st August, 1994. On 26th September, 1994, the High Court reserved its judgment. In the meantime, under compulsion and pressure from the Centre including a threat to stop the release of funds unless the process of election was completed by 31st December, 1994, conveyed in the Centres communication dated 12th November, 1994, the State Government renotified the dates of elections on 26th November, 1994 in pursuance whereof the process of election was to commence on 3rd December, 1994.

The High Court by its impugned judgment delivered on 2nd December, 1994 has held, among other things, that the definitions of Village under Section 2 (t), of Gram Sabha under Section 2(g) and of Panchayat Area under Section 2(11) read with Section 11-F of the Act were ultra vires the respective definitions given in Articles 243 (g), 243 (b), and 243 (e) read with Article 243-C of the Constitution. High Court has further held; (i) that the village has to be a habitat according to the anthropological concept, (ii) that the village for the purposes of the Panchayat can be specified only in accordance with the wishes of the inhabitants of the village as conveyed to the Governor who is obliged to notify it without involvement of the State Government, (iii) that the Governor has to act independently of the State Government in the matter of specification of the "village" and (iv) further the village will have to be fixed according to the aspirations, chauvinism and the wishes of the villagers. As regards the Gram Sabha, the Court has held that although definition of Gram Sabha refers to a body of persons registered in the electoral rolls, the reference to "es