1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith by the consent of the parties and heard finally.

2. All the petitioners in these petitions are the Gram Panchayats, who are represented by their Sarpanch / Member. These petitioners have put forth their grievance on behalf of the elected members of the gram panchayats.

3. The respondents in each of these petitions are Statutory Authorities. The Agricultural Produce Market Committee, Aurad, (Shahajani) is respondent No.5, who has not caused an appearance despite service.

4. Since an identical issue is involved in all these cases, this Court (Coram : Sunil P.Deshmukh, J.) had considered these petitions and had passed a common interim order dated 04/08/2015. It is in these circumstances that all these petitions have been heard finally together by the consent of the parties.

5. The undisputed facts in these cases are as under :

[a] Respondent No.5 APMC is situated at Aurad Shahajani and all the petitioners gram panchayats fall within the jurisdiction of the said APMC.

[b] The term of the gram panchayats was to end in July, 2015.

[c] Elections to the members of the gram panchayat for the new terms were held on 23/04/2015 and the results of the