Decisions impacting rights of elected representatives must adhere to natural justice, including providing notice and opportunity for hearing.

1. These three appeals are being disposed of by a common judgment since the issues involved are the same and they all arise out of one judgment of a learned Single Judge of this Court delivered in WP(C) 287 of 2012, WP(C) 408 of 2012, WP(C) 409 of 2012 and WP(C) 446 of 2012 dated 10-01-2014 whereby he dismissed the writ petitions filed by the present petitioners (appellants herein).

2. The undisputed facts are that the appellants herein were elected as members of Fatikroy Gram Panchayat as members of the Indian National Congress (for short, INC). At the time when the election took place, out of the 12 (twelve) members elected to the Gram Panchayat, 8(eight) including the appellants belonged to the INC and 4(four) belonged to the Communist Party of India (Marxist) [for short, CPI(M)]. Thereafter, Suprava Nag and Subhash Datta of the INC (private respondent nos. 7 and 6 respectively) were elected as Pradhan and Upa - Pradhan of the Panchayat.

3. On 19th March, 2012, 4(four) members of the Panchayat issued a notice under the Tripura Panchayats (Election of Office Bearers) Rules, 1994 (for short, Rules of 1994) expressing no confidence against the Pradhan and Upa - Pradhan of the Panchayat on various charges. The District Panchayat Officer on receipt of the said notice convened two meetings of the Panchayat on 07-04-2012 for consideration of the no confidence motion against the Pradhan and the Upa - Pradhan. These meetings were fixed at 11 a.m. and 1 p.m. respectively. The Panchayat Extension Officer, Kumarghat was directed to preside over the meetings. On 05-04-2012, the District Panchayat Officer received two Whips whereby every member of the Panchayat elected as candidate of INC was directed to cast vote against the no confidence motions. The District Panchayat Officer thereafter sent a letter on 05-04-2012 to the Panchayat Extension Officer along with the Whips requesting him to bring those Whips to the notice of the members of the Fatikroy Gram Panchayat belonging to the INC.

4. It is not disputed that meetings to consider the no confidence motions were conducted and in these meetings the petitioners voted in favour of the motion, i.e. against the Pradhan and Upa - Pradhan who were also members of the INC. It is alleged that the Panchayat Extension Officer before conducting the meeting had read out the Whip(s) in the meeting(s) of the Panchayat. He had also obtained the signatures of the members on the reverse of the Whip, but the appellants herein who belonged to the INC had refused to put their signatures on the Whips. Thereafter, the no confidence motion was put to vote and the four members of the CPI(M) and the three appellants voted in favour of the motion and the no confidence motion was accordingly carried.

5. Thereafter, the Panchayat Extension Officer recorded the minutes of the meeting, obtained the signatures of all the 12 (twelve) members and forwarded a report to the District Panchayat Officer and in this report he prayed that action be taken against the appellants Smti. Usha Barua, Sri Ratan Roy and Smti. Sikha Das who had voted in favour of the motion in defiance of the Whip issued by their party (INC).

6. After considering the report of the Panchayat Extension Officer, the Block Development Officer, Kumarghat (hereinafter referred to as the BDO) vide the order dated 14-05-2012 declared the appellants to be disqualified from membership of the Panchayat since they had violated sub-section (2) of S.16 of the Tripura Panchayats Act , 1993 (for short, Act of 1993) inasmuch as they had cast their vote in favour of the no confidence motions in defiance of the Whips.

7. Aggrieved by the said order, the