RAVI S. DHAVAN, J.

( 1 ) DEMOCRACY at the grass root level is the subject matter of a large number of petitions, all relating to the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1947 (hereinafter referred to as the Act ). This Act has been amended by the State legislature after the Constitution of India itself stood amended by the Constitution (Seventy-Third Amendment), Act, 1992, dated 20/04/1994 (hereinafter referred to as the Constitution Amendment Act ). Insofar as the Constitutional Amendments were concerned, primarily they related to introducing homogeneous local self-Government at the village level throughout the nation. And yet not ignoring the aspirations of rural India to participate in governing itself at the village level, certain nomenclatures to the administration of democracy at the village level were brought in as a standardised pattern in all the States of the nation. In some parts of India, the basic nucleus of local self-Government at the village was either the Gaon Sabha or the Gram Sabha. These expressions, as they may be understood in generality, in every State, will henceforth be known as the Gram Sabha. To make village planning practical for the purpose of its governanc

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