The proviso to section 12 of the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973 does not bar the holding of a meeting for the removal and adoption of a resolution within six months, if the meeting dated 19.12.96 was not legally convened.

R. BHATTACHARYYA, J.

( 1 ) - The petitioner appellant Mustakim has come up against an order dated 13. 6. 97 passed by the learned trial Judge when the writ application suffered a dismissal on the ground that no bar has been encompassed by the West Bengal Panchayat Act to hold the meeting for removal and adoption of a resolution within six months, by the reason of failure to hold the meeting dated 19. 12. 96 for not been legally convened.

( 2 ) IN the background of the above, it will be unnecessary to give an account of the entire factual exposure of the case save necessary. The Dadpur Gram Panchayat is consisted of 25 members of which the petitioner appellant was the captain of the said Gram Panchayat, namely the Pradhan. However, for the prolonged absence in the meeting of two members in the Gram Panchayat, it bent upon cancellation of the membership.

( 3 ) THE proposal for the removal of the Pradhan, therefore, became a consequential act as the above members flew into rage. The warring groups fell out against each other and went through a spate of litigations to sustain their rival claim. Ultimately, the Director of Panchayat by his Memo No. 777/iii/vp/6a-1/1997 dated 6. 3. 97 intimated the Block Development Officer, Barasat-2 on the strength of the proviso appended to section 12 of the Act that no other meeting could be convened, if the meeting is not held for the removal of the office bearer within six months from the date of appointed such meeting which became all sore in this litigation. A status quo order sprang up and spirally reached the court of his Lordship, the Hon'ble Justice Altamas Kabir where the Hon'ble Court dismissed the writ application hereinbefore quoted in the preface of this order or judgment.

( 4 ) A debate already ensued about the legality or otherwise of the impugned order. The learned counsel appearing for the appellant to support the stay application has submitted that the order is patently wrong as the order passed is not in consonance with the statute. This has been seriously disputed by the learned counsel appearing for the respondent on the footing that the argument of the learned counsel is illusory as the whole Act would be reduced to shambles.

( 5 ) TO fortify his submissions, he has submitted that the statute must be interpreted with the preamble, scheme and object of an Act, but not in isolation. Any

attempt foreign to statute may result in conflagrant violation of justice and morbidity.

( 6 ) RETURN to examine the provisions of the statute, the words, "at any time" employed in section 12 of the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973 should receive a wider connotation. The second proviso appended to section 12 of the said Act cannot put any lid on the expressions "at any time" above referred to as it can never precede the main section.

( 7 ) IN our view, we do not find any reason to take a different view of his Lordship's order complained of as the law does not afford any unchartered right to withhold and/or suspend the meeting for the removal of the office bearer within six months from the date appointed for such meeting.

( 8 ) IT would be a pure legal fiction for the outer limit prescribed in the proviso appended to section 12 of the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1973 that the Pradhan or the Upa-Pradhan, as the case may be, even if commits any misfeasance, malfeasance, misconduct and became the slave of adverse activities of the Panchayat still could continue and is not, therefore, liable to be removed.

( 9 ) THE proviso is not an independent provision of the statute having its main stay in the section itself where the expressions "at any time" is to receive a comprehensive meaning warranting a beneficial construction. The proviso has no independent existence in absence of the main section. The Panchayat Act is a piece of legislation introduced for promotion of welfare of the village where any act done detrimental to the promotion of village, the Gram Panchayat cannot sit on the fence and

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