JUDGMENT :

CHAKRADHARI SHARAN SINGH, J.

1. This matter has been taken up for hearing online because of COVID-19 pandemic restrictions.

2. The petitioner, an ex-Mukhiya, of Gram Panchayat Samas Khurd in the district of Sheikhpura, is aggrieved by a notification issued vide Memo. No. 1328 dated 17.03.2021 by Urban Development and Housing Department, Government of Bihar, whereby the said Gram Panchayat has been included in Nagar Parishad, Barbigha, in the exercise of the power vested in the State Government under Section 8 of the Bihar Municipal Act, 2007.

3. We have heard Dr. Anjani Prasad Singh, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner, Mr. Abbas Haider, learned Standing Counsel No. 6 for the State of Bihar and Mr. Neeraj Kumar Singh, learned counsel for the Nagar Parishad, Barbigha.

4. It is the petitioner’s case that the notification is in teeth of the second proviso to Section 3 of the Act, which mandates that the population of main cultivator workers and marginal cultivator workers of an urban area (larger, medium or transitional) must be less than of 50% of the total population of workers in such area in all cases. The petitioner's case is that 90% to 95% of the panchayat village population is agricultural farming. It is petitioner's further case that the villages under Gram Panchayat Samas Khurd are at a distance of five km. to 10 km. from the Nagar Parishad, Barbigha, which has wrongly been made part of the said Nagar Parishad, leaving aside the nearer villages, deliberately against the interest of the villagers of the Gram Panchayat Samas Khurd. It is the petitioner's case that he had raised an objection against the proposal to include the said Gram Panchayat Samas Khurd into the Barbigha Nagar Parishad. Without duly considering the petitioner’s objection, Gram Panchayat Samas Khurd has been incorporated into the Nagar Parishad, Barbigha by the impugned notification, the petitioner contends.

5. Dr. Anjani Prasad Singh, learned counsel appearing on behalf of the petitioner, has submitted with reference to the statement made in paragraph 14 of the writ petition that since 75 per cent of the population of Gram Panchayat Samas Khurd is of either marginal cultivator workers or main cultivator workers, the status of the Gram Panchayat ought not to have been altered, and it should not have been included in Barbigha Nagar Parishad. According to him, objections raised by the petitioner and others have been casually considered by the authorities and rejected without due application of mind.

6. A counter affidavit has been filed on behalf of the State of Bihar from which it transpires that the State of Bihar undertook an exercise for constitution of new urban bodies and upgradation/extension of the area of old urban local bodies. During the review of the proposals obtained from all districts at the departmental level, a necessity to issue guidelines addressing various issues, especially a need for constitution of committee under the chairmanship of the District Magistrate for review of the amended proposal was felt. Accordingly, the Secretary, Urban Development and Housing Department, through a letter dated 13.12.2020, informed all the District Magistrates of Bihar to send amended proposals for the constitution of new urban bodies. In response to the said letter dated 13.12.2020, the District Magistrate, Sheikhpura, recommended the Secretary of the Department through his letter dated 19.12.2020 for extension of Barbigha Nagar Parishad. A copy of the said recommendation has been brought on record by way of Annexure-R/3 to the counter affidavit, from which it transpires that the villages of Gram Panchayat Samas Khurd were recommended to be included in Nagar Parishad, Barbigha by way of extension. It is a specific case of the State of Bihar, based on the said letter dated 19.12.2020 and other statistics provided by the District Magistrate, that percentage of the population of main cultivator workers and marginal cultivator work