YATINDRA SINGH, J.

( 1 ) THESE writ petitions challenge the validity of the Government orders (G. Os.) dated 6. 6. 2001, 21. 9. 2001 and 19. 11. 2001 so far as they, * repatriate the employees of three departments (who were earlier transferred to Gram panchayats) to their parent departments ; * re-designate and confine the duties of employees of two departments (still under control and supervision of Gram Panchayats) according to their educational qualifications. The consequential orders in pursuance of these G. Os. are also challenged. They are of different dates but their validity depends upon the validity of the aforesaid G. Os. ; they float or sink with the G. Os. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND OF THE G. Os.

( 2 ) INDIA, that is, Bharat is Union of States. Its territories consist of territories of the States and the union Territories. Geographically, they are divided into districts. A district consists of urban and rural areas. Urban areas are governed by Municipalities and rural areas by panchayats. Our majority lives in rural areas, yet there was no reference to panchayats in the Draft Constitution prepared (October, 1947) by Sri B. N. Rao, the constitutional adviser. This led Mahatama Gandhi to say :

"i must confess that I have not been able to follow the proceedings of the Constituent Assembly. . . (The correspondent) says that there is no mention or direction about village panchayats and decentralisation in the foreshadowed Constitution. It is certainly an omission calling for immediate attention if our independence is to reflect the peoples voice. The greater the power of the panchayats, the better for the people (Harijan, 21 December 1947 ). "

( 3 ) THE draft Constitution was settled by a drafting committee before its introduction in the constituent Assembly on November 4, 1948, by its Chairman, Dr. B. R. Ambedkar. This settled draft was criticised, as it also did not have any reference to panchayats. (While introducing the Draft Constitution and referring to criticism thereof, Ambedkar had expressed himself strongly against the system of village panchayats. Characterizing the village as "a sink of localism" and "a den of narrow-mindedness", he had observed : "i am glad that the draft Constitution has discarded the village and adopted the individual as its unit. " The expression of such a view by Ambedkar had evoked strong resentment and protests from a number of members, C. A. Deb. Vol VII. pp. 39-9 (The Framing of Indias Constitution. A study ; published by the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi page 330 foot note 3 ). Subsequently, an amendment (Article 31 A) was adopted on November 22, 1948, without any comments from Dr. Ambedkar. This became Article 40 of the Constitution, one of the Directive principles of State Policy. It lays down that the State shall take steps to organise panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-government.

( 4 ) SRI Jai Prakash Narain in a foreword to the book panchayat Raj and Indian Politics, dharampal, Collected Writings says : "during the freedom struggle, because of Gandhijis formative influence upon the political thinking of those who fought for freedom, it was more or less taken for granted that gramraj would be the foundation of swaraj. In other words, the concept of political and economic decentralisation was axiomatic with the fighters for freedom. But when the Constitution came actually to be constructed, that concept somehow was forgotten, or to be more precise, remembered only as an afterthought. "

( 5 ) OUR experience with panchayats in independent India had not been happy. These institutions were not able to acquire the status and dignity of viable and responsible peoples bodies due to a number of reasons Including absence of regular elections, prolonged suppressions, insufficient representation of weaker sections like scheduled castes, scheduled tribes and women, inadequate devolution of

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