Chittatosh Mookerjee, J.

1. The petitioner was a Lower Division Clerk in the Pass Section of the office of the Chief Personnel Officer, South Eastern Railway, Garden Reach. In the year 1964 he was ejected as a member of Maheshtala Anchal Panchayat and thereafter he was elected as the Pradhan of the said Anchal. He is still the holder of the said office. When he was ejected, government servants were not disqualified from becoming either members of Gram or Anchal Panchayats or Adhyaksha and Upadhyaksha, Pradhan and Upapradhan. The West Bengal Panchayat and Zilla Parishads (Amendment) Act, 1965 came into force on 11.12.1965. The said Act amended the West Bengal Panchayat Act, 1956 and the West Bengal Zilla Parishads Act, 1963 in the manner appearing in the said Act. The Section 2(2) was in the following terms:-

"In sub-section (1) of Section 15 after clause (a) the following clauses shall be inserted, namely:-

(aa) he is not a citizen of India;

(aaa) he is in the service of the Central or State Government or of the Zilla Parishad of the district or of an Anchalik Parishad, an Anchal Panchayat or a Gram Panchayat within the district."

2. On 10.6.1965 the Director of Panchayat, We