IMPORTANT POINT
Mere notice of motion to Collector without any meeting pursuant thereto will not attract Section 15(12) to the meeting held for considering second no confidence motion.

JUDGMENT

Dipak Misra, CJI.

India, a vast country, lives in villages. The Gram Sabhas in the ancient era were conferred certain powers so that there could be a feeling of participation in the societal and local issues and also to establish a socio-cultural amity among the members of the collective. History records with satisfaction that panchayats were able to settle disputes amongst the villagers and they had many a tool to focus on unity. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, emphasized on many an occasion that people should go to the villages to realize the true character of real India. He had said with emphasis that “”India lives in her seven hundred thousand villages” and “the soul of India lives in its villages”. The Constituent Assembly debates reflected on the importance of the villages but it thought appropriate to incorporate the concept of village panchayats in Article 40 of the Constitution which occurs in Chapter IV dealing with Directive Principles of State Policy. The said article provides that the State shall take steps to organize village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authorities as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government. The said article, as is evincible, only requires the State to take steps to confer such powers.

2. With the passage of time, it was realized that there had been no real decentralization of powers. In the absence of basic decentralization of powers travelling to the mores in one of the largest democracies like India, it was felt that the real purpose of social transformation could not be achieved. It was acknowledged and accepted that the people at the grass root level deserved to be politically, economically and socially empowered and the Seventy Third Amendment was brought into the framework of our organic Constitution with the clear intent of having local self-government. The vision, it can be said with certitude, is sacred and the same is explicit from the Statement of Objects and Reasons of the Seventy Third Amendment to the Constitution. It reads as follows:

“Though the Panchayati Raj Institutions have been in existence for a long time, it has been observed that these institutions have not been able to acquire the status and dignity of viable and responsive people's bodies due to a number of reasons including absence of regular elections, prolonged super-sessions, insufficient representation of weaker sections like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and women, inadequate devolution of powers and lack of financial resources.

2. Article 40 of the Constitution which enshrines one of the Directive Principles of State Policy lays down that the State shall take steps to organise village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government. In the light of the experience in the last forty years and in view of the shortcomings which have been observed, it is considered that there is an imperative need to enshrine in the Constitution certain basic and essential features of Panchayati Raj Institutions to impart certainty, continuity and strength to them.

3. Accordingly, it is proposed to add a new Part relating to Panchayats in the Constitution to provide for among other things, Gram Sabha in a village or group of villages; constitution of Panchayats at village and other level or levels; direct elections to all seats in Panchayats at the village and intermediate level, if any, and to the offices of Chairpersons of Panchayats at such levels; reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in proportion to their population for membership of Panchayats and office of Chairpersons in Panchayats at each level; reservation of not less than one-third of the seats for women; fixing tenure of 5 years for Panchayats and holding elections within a period of 6 months in the event of supersession of any Panchayat; disqualifications for membership of Panchayats; devo