The main legal point established in the judgment is that Notifications issued under Section 5(1)(B) of the Madhya Pradesh Municipalities Act, 1961 must fulfill the requirements of Article 243Q of the Constitution and Section 5 & 6 of the Municipalities Act, including being area specific and considering necessary parameters for declaring areas as 'transitional areas'.

ORDER :

Sujoy Paul, J.

1. In these batch of petitions filed under Article 226 of the Constitution, challenge is made to similar Notifications dated 04/10/2018 (Annexure P/3), 29/09/2018 (Annexure P/4) & 02/07/2020 (Annexure P/1) issued by Urban Development and Housing Department in exercise of power under Section 5(1)(B) of Madhya Pradesh Municipalities Act, 1961 (37 of 1961) (in short Municipalities Act), whereby Govt. included the areas of certain village panchayats as Municipal Council.

2. This Court by common order dated 21/10/2020 had set aside the impugned Notifications by reserving liberty to the State to follow the "due process" and proceed afresh.

3. Review Petitions No. 51 & 52 of 2021 were filed by the State seeking review of said common order dated 21/10/2020. The singular ground taken in the review petition was that a gazette Notification dated 27/11/2011 was filed by the State in aforesaid writ petitions but while passing the final order, the said Notification has not been taken into account. If Notification would have been taken into account, the fate of the matters would have been different. Since a relevant Notification which has a bearing on the issues involved has been left out, the matter may be reviewed. The review petitions were entertained and order dated 21/10/2020 was reviewed and recalled. The writ petitions were directed to be restored to their original numbers. In turn, these matters again came up for consideration before us.

4. Facts are taken from WP No. 16904/2020. The petitioners are Sarpanch of different panchayats. From newspapers, they came to know that Nagar Parishad (Municipal Council) is decided to be formed in Tehsil-Kukshi, District-Dhar. The petitioners promptly sent their representations against the formation of Nagar Parishad which are cumulatively marked as Annexure P/1. Since Petitioners' representations went in vain, they filed present petition contending that impugned Notification dated 04/10/2018 is not passed as per constitutional requirement of Article 243(Q) of Constitution of India and Section 5 & 6 of Municipalities Act.

5. To bolster this submission, Shri VK Jain, learned Senior Counsel assisted by Shri Abhishek Tugnawat, learned counsel placed heavy reliance on Article 243Q and Section 5 & 6 of the Municipalities Act. It is submitted that:-

(i) no order for disestablishment of any village was ever passed under Panchayat Raj and Gram Swaraj Adhiniyam, 1993 (Adhiniyam),

(ii) no Notification under Section 126 of Adhiniyam for disestablishment of any Gram Panchayat was ever issued,

(iii) no opportunity of filing objections or hearing was ever afforded to the residents of any village,

(iv) no consequential order was ever passed under the Adhiniyam,

(v) no Notification as required under Article 243-Q of the Constitution of India and Section 5(2) & (6) of Municipalities Act was ever issued,

(vi) the Notification dated 27/11/2011 by no stretch of imagination can be said to be a Notification in consonance with Article 243-Q and Section 5(2) of Municipalities Act because:-

(a) The said Notification does not fulfill the requirement of proviso to Article 243-Q of the Constitution and Section 5(2) of Municipalities Act.

(b) The said Notification does not mention the name of any village and other necessary details.

(c) By said Notification, no Gram Panchayat was disestablished.

(d) The Notification dated 27/11/2011 at the most can be treated to be a guideline for declaring any area as "transitional area" subject to fulfillment of other standards.

(e) "Transitional area" cannot be established unless Gram Panchayat is disestablished. A separate Notification for declaring the area as "transitional area" is required to be established. In absence of any declaration/Notification being issued either to disestablish any Gram Panchayat or to declare any area as "transitional area", the petitioners got no opportunity of filing objection.

6. Shri VK Jain, learned Senior Counsel placed reliance on the order of this