B. J. DIVAN, P. N. BHAGWATI, J. M. SHELAT, J.

( 1 ) TWO contentions have been raised in this petition (1)challenging the validity of the notification dated May 29 1962 issued by the Collector Broach District under sec. 10 of the Bombay Village Panchayats Act 1958 on the ground that the Collector had no authority to issue a fresh order under that section once he had already issued a previous order thereby exhausting his power under the provisions of sec. 10 and (2) that assuming that he had such power the impugned notification and the order which it notified were issued mala fide for an oblique purpose extraneous to the purpose envisaged by sec. 10 of the Act. In order to appreciate these two contentions raised by Mr. Nanavati on behalf of the petitioner it is necessary to state a few relevant facts.

( 2 ) THE petitioner at the material time was a resident of village Tankari in Broach District. The local area of Tankari Bunder was declared to be a village under sec. 4 of the Act. At all material times the petitioner was on the electoral roll of the Legislative Assembly and was therefore under the provisions of sec. 12 qualified to vote at the election of a member of the Tankari Gram Panchayat. In pursuance of the power conferred by sec. 10 the Collector by a notification dated April 24 1962 published rules for reservation of seats for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes the total number of seats and the seats reserved for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes as therein set out. The notification also declared that the village was given nine seats out of which two seats were reserved for women and one each for scheduled castes and scheduled tribes. On that very day the Collector passes another order again under sec. 10 of the Act constituting thereby wards in the said village. By that order the Collector constituted three wards and also defined the extent of each of those three wards and ordered that there should be a reserved seat for women in ward No. 1 called Vohorawad Ward one seat for scheduled tribes in ward No. 2 called Undi-Khadki Ward and two reserved seats one each for scheduled castes and women in the third ward called Hindulatta Ward. The order also declared that there would be in all nine seats each ward having three seats. Thereafter on May 3 1962 the Block Development Officer Jambusar issued his order under the Village Panchayats Election Rules 1959 setting out therein the various stages of the election. Under that order he fixed June 4. 1962 as the date for submitting nomination papers June 6 1962 as the date for scrutiny of the nomination papers June 7 as the date for filing an appeal against the order on nomination papers June 12 as the date for withdrawing nomination papers and July 6 1962 as the date for the election. On May 29 1962 the Collector issued the impugned notification directing the reconstitution of the wards for the election and ordering that the village should be divided into three wards for the purpose of the said election and laying down therein revised boundaries of each of the three wards and the allocation of reserved seats for each of those wards. By this notification the Collector directed that there would be two reserved seats one for women and one for scheduled tribes out of the three seats in ward No. 1. One reserved seat for women was allocated to ward No. 2 and one reserved seat for scheduled castes was allocated to ward No. 3. The position which emerged as a result of this notification was that not only the extent of each of wards Nos. 1 and 2 was altered but the original allocation of reserved seats to each of the three wards was considerably modified. Under the notification dated April 24 1962 ward No. 1 contained houses Nos. 1 to 108 and ward No. 2 was comprised of houses Nos. 109 to 225. The notification dated May 29 1962 altered the extent of these two wards inasmuch as ward No. 1 now was comprised of houses Nos. 1 to 71 94 to 108 and 110 to 134 while ward No. 2 was now compris

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