J. B. MEHTA, S. H. SHETH, J.

( 1 ) THE petitioner who is a registered voter in the village Khad-Khambhalia challenges in this petition the notification issued on September 27 1971 under sec. 20 (1) of the Gujarat Panchayats Act 1961 hereinafter referred to as the Act by the competent authority dividing this Gram into three election wards and distributing three seats to each ward. The Khad-khambhalia Gram Panchayat originally consisted of four villages Khad-khambhalia Nava Dhunia Khatia and Rakka. From the inception of the Group Gram Panchayat in 1952 election was always uncontested and its 11 seats at that time had been divided as under:- Khad-khambhalia -6 Khatia -2 Nava Dhunia -1 Rakka -2 thus as against 6 seats for Khad-khambhalia Nava Dhunia had only one seat for all these 18 to 20 years. The old Gram Panchayat had passed unanimous resolution to have separate Panchayats for all the four villages. However the State Government under sec. 9 of the Act gave separate Panchayats by constituting only Khatia and Rakka as new Grams while Nava Dhunia still remained joint with Khad-khambhalia. Nava Dhunia therefore did not get independent Panchayat and it was therefore given at the time of

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