JUDGMENT

Ajay Kumar Mittal, J.(Oral)The petitioner has approached this Court by way of public interest litigation under Article 226 of the Constitution of India, inter alia, seeking a writ in the nature of mandamus directing the respondents to immediate release honorarium to the Sarpanches in the State of Punjab, with effect from July, 2013 onwards for the following reasons:-

(i) The Sarpanches in the State of Punjab, which include Sarpanches of Scheduled Caste community also, have been deprived of the paltry amount of honorarium @ ` 1200/- per month, in completely unjustified manner; and

(ii) a substantial number of Sarpanches in the State of Punjab are quite poor and belong to Schedules Caste and cannot afford to discharge their duties without payment of such honorarium to them.

2. Learned counsel for the petitioner submitted that for the claim made in this writ petition, the petitioner had sent a legal notice dated 07.07.2017 (Annexure P-3) to the respondents, but the same having been un-redressed, which has given cause of action to the petitioner to approach this Court by way of writ of mandamus.

3. After hearing learned counsel for the petitioner, perusing the present writ petition and without commenting anything on the merits of the case, we dispose of the present petition at this stage by directing respondent No.2 to take a decision on the legal notice dated 07.07.2017 (Annexure P-3), by passing a speaking order in accordance with law within a period of two months from the date of receipt of certified copy of the order.