A provision of law that confers unfettered, unguided, and uncanalised powers on the government to abolish a statutory body without providing any guidelines or policy for exercising such power is unconstitutional as it violates Article 14 of the Constitution, which guarantees equality before the law.

S.S.SANDHAWALIA, J.

1. Do the provisions of S.244 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 suffer from the taint of unconstitutionality, is the spinal issue which has necessitated the admission and hearing of this set of cases by the Division Bench.

2. For a question so pristinely legal, the facts pale into relative insignificance. However, a skeletal resume thereof giving rise to the issue seems to be inevitable and a reference to those in C.W.P. No.4143 of 1980 (Jaswant Singh Multani V/s. Sub Divisional Officer (Civil) Exercising the powers of the Deputy Commissioner, Kapurthala and another), would suffice. By a notification published in the Punjab Government Gazette dated October 27, 1978, in exercise of the powers under S.241 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 (hereinafter called the Act ). the Governor of Punjab declared the local area comprising Bholath in the Kapurtbala District, to be a notified area for the purpose of the said Act. Later, vide notification annexure-P/2, dated February 8, 1980, the Government of Punjab appointed a Committee of 16 persons for the notified Area Committee of Bholath and fixed their term for a period of three years from the date of its publication. By a similar notification, dated Feb. 9, 1980. Jaswant Singh Multani - petitioner was appointed as the President of the said Notified Area Committee and his term of office was also fixed for the same period of three years.

3. However, hardly eight months later on October 17, 1980, the respondent-State issued the notification annexure-1/4 abolishing the Notified Area Committee which is the primary subject matter of challenge and may, therefore, be quoted in extenso :-

"No.41(1) 80-USLG (3)/322 (Spl) - In exercise of powers conferred by Section 244 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 , and all other powers enabling him in this behalf, the Governor of Punjab is pleased to cancel with immediate effect Notification No.10(1) - 78 USLG (3)/235 (Spl) dated 19th October, 1978, issued under Section 241 of the said Act declaring notified area and as published in the Punjab Government Gazette dated the 27th October, 1978."

In the writ petition, apart from the legal grounds, the issuance of the notification was sought to be challenged on the grounds of mala fides and extraneous consideration therefor. However, during the course of arguments, the allegations of mala fides and extraneous grounds were expressly given up and therefore, do not merit any reference. To complete the re sume of facts, it may be mentioned that during the pendency of the writ petition, the respondent-State issued another notification on November 21, 1980, annexre-P/5, whereby the area earlier covered by the Notified Area committee was constituted into a Sabha area and a Gram Panchayat was sought to be created therefor. In the amended petition, this notification was further made the target of attack.

4. Ere I advert to the basic issue of the challenge to the constitutionality of S.244 of the Act, a bird s eye view of the broad scheme of the Local Self-Government within the State is called for. At the very grass-roots is the village as a unit and under S.4 of the Punjab Gram Panchayat Act any village or group of villages may be declared a Sabha area and a Gram Panchayat may be constituted therefor under S.5 of the said Act. Next in the hierarchy thereto are the semi-urbanized areas for which the Government does not deem it expedient to constitute a Municipality. These are served by the creation of Notified Area Committee under S.241 of the Act which fall for primary consideration here. Higher in rank comes the creation of Municipal Committees under Ss.4 and 5 of the Punjab Municipal Act for areas which are truly urban in nature. At the very apex, in this context, are then the Municipal Corporations created by the stature for the larger cities of Amritsar, Jullundur and Ludhiana.

5. The learned counsel for the petitioner frontally assailed the provisions of S.244 of the Act on the anvil of