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 governance and to remove parochial anomalies from village to village and for better integration of self-rule in rural politics, the village itself became a concept of identity by self-determination. A Gram Sabha became a nucleus of self-determination. More than one Gram Sabha was permitted to come under a broad rural administration, known as a Panchayat Area, with its executive known as the Gram Panchayat. It was earlier called as Gaon Panchayat. Then, there are the village elders all wisemen and sane, collectively called the Nyay Panchayat, discharging grassroot level justice. There were the broad changes which affected the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1947, by the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Raj (Amendment) Act, 1994 (U. P. Act No. 9 of 1994), referred hereinafter as the Amendment Act.

( 2 ) INEVITABLY, since there has to be a link between the past, present and future, the Constitution of India gave broad outlines in the Constitution Amendment Act on the applicability of the existing Act, until then, by permitting the State legislature to legislate by incorporating what the Constitution of India had intended.

( 3 ) TO precipitate local self-Government in the villages as a constitutional obligation, the Constitution Amendment Act itself permitted the constituents of the existing Gaon Sabha, the Gaon Panchayat, the Nyay Panchayat, the Pradhans. Up-Pradhans, etc. to continue for a period of one year with an understanding that the provisions of the Constitution of India will take over after this period of one year draws to a close. A discretion was permitted that the term of the Panchayat could be dissolved sooner by a resolution of the Houses of the Legislatures and then, an election in accordance with the Act, as brought up-to-date by incorporating the spirit of the Constitution of India on these matters, could be held to elect the Panchayats.

( 4 ) HEREINAFTER, it was left to each State to take over the implementation of the concept of local self-Government as a first step democracy in rural India to build a base at the grassroot. The geometry of a Parliamentary democracy from the base of the pyramid to the point was laid. The State of U. P. also attempted to fall in line with the constitutional amendments brought in by amending the Act, initially legislated in 1947. But, while doing so, one thing was clear that the elections had not been announced in accordance with the Constitution of India. The Constitution Amendment Act did not stop the Government in Uttar Pradesh from doing so. Instead, the State of U. P. by a general notification dated 15/04/1994, exercising its powers under the unamended Act, permitted the erstwhile and existing Panchayats, coming to the end of their tenure, to continue in office until 23/04/1995, that is to say, one year more, unless

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