AVINASH SOMAKANT BHATE, J.

( 1 ) THE writ petition is essentially filed for challenging the trifurcation of Gram Panchayat, Komarolu, Prakasam District. The said Gram Panchayat consisted of seven hamlets of Komarolu village. The seven hamlets were; (i) Gopaluripalle; (ii) Bhavapuram; (in) Purushottampalle; (iv) Sarivireddypalle; (v) Tatireddypalle; (vi) Bontipalle and (vii) Hanumantharayudupalle. The petitioner was formerly Sarpanch of the said Gram Panchayat continuously from 1973 to 1995 and was later as Person-incharge of the said Gram Panchayat. Subsequently he was elected as member of the Zilla Parishad Territorial Constituency and hence demitted Office of Sarpanch/person-incharge of Komarolu Gram Panchayat. The second respondent (Collector) issued a notification vide proceedings in ROC No. 4177/94, dated 13-10-1994 with a proposal of trifurcation of Komarolu of Gram Panchayat into (1) Komarolu (2) Bhavapuram and (3) Tatireddipalle Gram Panchayats and called upon the undivided Komarolu Gram Panchayat to convene a Special Meeting for consideration of the said proposal. The petitioner alleges that the undivided Komarolu Gram Panchayat passed an unanimous resolution on 22-10-1994 opposing any such trifurcation. It was stated further that the division was contrary to the provisions of the Andhra Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1964 (hereafter referred to as the Act ) and that the undivided Gram Panchayat was fiinctioning very well and had secured fifteen Awards, within a period of 22 years, as the best Gram Panchayat. The second respondent inspitc of this unanimous Resolution went allied with the proposal. Respondent No. 2 instead of taking into consideration the unanimous resolution of the Gram Panchayat dated 22-10-1994, relied upon an earlier resolution of the Gram Panchayat which was passed before the objections were called by the Collector. Relying on the said earlier resolution of 28-9-1994, respondent No. 2 passed an order on 19-11-1994 vide ROC No. 4177/94 (Pts ). By the said proceedings the Gram Panchayat was trifurcated as was proposed. It is alleged that the said proceedings ordering trifurcation are illegal and invalid apart from being arbitrary. The petitioner filed a revision petition against the said order. The said revision was dismissed by the Government by G. O. Rt. No. 1086 dated 18-8-1997. The petitioner then challenged the order of the Government in the writ petition by filing WP No. 24087 of 1997 in this Court. The said writ petition was allowed on 2-12-1997 by Hon ble Justice Sri S. R. Nayak, a learned single Judge of this Court. While allowing the said writ petition the learned single Judge set aside the order of the Collector dated 19-11-1994 as well as the Government Order dated 18-8-1997 but remitted the matter to the Government with a direction to consider the objections of the Gram Panchayat and after applying its mind to take a final decision in the matter. The said order in the writ petition was challenged in WA No. 1422 of 1997 by one Mr. M. C. Subbaiah, who was an impleaded petitioner in WP No. 24087 of 1997. The said writ appeal was disposed at the stage of admission by a Division Bench of this Court (of which 1 was a member) by modifying the order of the learned single Judge. The Division Bench modified the order in view of the fact that the learned single Judge had remitted the matter to the Government and not to the Collector. It was therefore directed that it was not necessary at that stage to quash the Collector s order. As the matter was remitted to the Government and quashing of the Government Order was upheld. The Government was directed to dispose of the revision petition within two months from the date of receipt of the order from the High Court. However disposal was not made within that time. That "has however no effect on" the merits of the case.

( 2 ) BEFORE the Government disposed of the revision petition the State Election Commission issued a notification on 30/05/1998 for holding e

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