An officer holding the post in-charge has the power to discharge the statutory functions of the said post, unless specifically prohibited.

1. By consent, the main writ petition itself is taken up for disposal.

2. Theprayer in the writ petition is for issuance of a writ of Certiorari to quash the notice issued by the second respondent dated 05.05.2008.

3. Thepetitioner is the elected President of Karunguzhi Panchayat in the election conducted during October 2006. The petitioner has challenged the notice dated 05.05.2008, which has been issued under Section 205(1)(a) of the Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act, 1994(herein after referred to "as the Act"), calling upon the petitioner to show cause as to why action should not be taken on the allegations contained therein.

4. The validity of the impugned notice is assailed on the ground that the second respondent does not have jurisdiction to issue the notice as he is not the Inspector of Panchayat and therefore, notice is liable to be setaside. It is further contended that the suo-moto power under Section 205(1)(a) of the Tamil Nadu Panchayat Act, has been invoked inspite of, a compliant given by the Vice-President. Further, it is contended that the impugned notice is only a proceedings of the second respondent and even assuming that the second respondent has been made as a District Collector (incharge), unless he has been specifically appointed as an Inspector of Panchayat, the second respondent would have no Jurisdiction to issue the impugned show cause notice. The learned counsel appearing for the petitioner would rely on the definition of the term Collector as defined under Section 2(5) of the Act and the definition of the term Inspector as defined under Section 2(16) of the Act and submit that the second respondent is not a Collector or Inspector in terms of the definitions and therefore the impugned notice is without jurisdiction. The learned counsel for the petitioner placed reliance on the Full Bench decision of this Court in A.Savariar Vs. The Secretary, TNPSC, Chennai and another, 2008 (4) CTC 753 in support of his contention.

5. Per contra, the learned Additional Advocate General would contend that the impugned notice was issued by the Inspector of Panchayat from the office of the second respondent. The authority, who issued the notice was appointed by the Government in G.O.Rt.No.1534, dated 15.04.2003, as Collector incharge and by virtue of such order, the officer held full additional charge of the post of Collector, Cuddalore District during the period on which the regular Collector was on leave. Therefore, it is submitted that the impugned notice does not suffer from any infirmity. The learned Additional Advocate General would further submitted that the decision of the Honble Full Bench of this Court in A.Savariar Vs. The Secretary, TNPSC, Chennai and another, 2008 (4) CTC 753, fully supports, the stand of the respondents and that the writ petition is devoid of merits.

6. I have carefully considered the submissions on either side and perused the materials available on record.

7. The short question, which arise for consideration of the present writ petition is as to whether the signatory in the impugned notice was empowered to issue the notice under Section 205 (1) (a) of the Act. The Section 205 of the Act deals with removal of the President of the Panchayat and states that the Inspector of Panchayats, as defined under Section 2(16) of the Act, either on his own motion or on a representation in writing signed by not less than 2/3rds of the sanctioned strength of the Village Panchayat containing a statement of charges against the President and presented in person to the Inspector by any two of the members of the Village Panchayat, is satisfied that the President willfully omits or refuses to carry out the duties or abuses of any his powers, the Inspector shall issue a notice calling upon the President to offer his explanation within the specified date. Under Section 2

.(5) of the Act Collector has been defined to mean the Collector of the Revenue District. Section 2 (16) defines, Inspector to mean