Wanchoo, C.J.—This is an application by Rangraj and seven others under Art. 226 of the Constitution of India for a writ of mandamus and prohibition against the gram panchayat Khinwel through its sarpanch Chunni-lal. The State of Rajasthan has also been made a party to the application.

2. It is unnecessary to give in detail all the points raised in the application and we propose to confine ourselves to the main argument on behalf of the applicants based on sec. 4 of the Marwar Village Panchayats Act, 1945. That argument is that the panchayat which is functioning in village Khinwel and has imposed certain taxes since January 1950 is not a properly constituted body, as no notification under sec. 4 of the Act was ever issued establishing a panchayat in that village. The Marwar Village Panchayats Act, 1945 came into force on the 1st of January 1946. Sec. 4 of that Act reads as follows: —

"The Minister in Charge may, by notification in the Jodhpur Government Gazette, establish a panchayat in any village or any group of villages not included within the limits of a Municipality."

3. The case of the applicants is that no notification under sec. 4 has ever been issued establishing a panchayat i

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