District Development and Panchayat Officer, Jalandhar, intact and operative.

2. Notice of motion.

3. Mr. Nirmaljit Singh Diwana, Senior Deputy Advocate General, Punjab, and Mr. Avtar Singh, Advocate, who are present in Court, accept notice on behalf of the respondent-State and respondent No.7, respectively.

5. Here it would be apposite to refer to Section 20(4) of the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, 1994, which reads as under:-

“The Director at any time, and the Deputy Commissioner or the District Development and Panchayat Officer during the course of an enquiry, may suspend a Sarpanch or Panch for any of the reasons for which he can be removed.”

5.1 A perusal of the aforesaid provision makes it clear that the learned District Development and Panchayat Officer is empowered to suspend a Sarpanch or Panch (as the case may be), only during the course of an enquiry.

6. Coming to the case in hand, the operative part of the impugned order dated 06.02.2026 (Annexure P-14) passed by the learned Administrative Secretary to Government of Punjab, Department of Rural Development and Panchayats, reads as under:-

The appellant is asked to appear before Ld. Director for getting the adjudication done.”

6.1 A perusal of the aforesaid order would show that a categoric finding has been returned by the learned Administrative Secretary that the petitioner has not been suspended during the pendency of the inquiry as envisaged under Section 20(4) of the Punjab Panchayati Raj Act, 1994.

7. In view of the aforesaid categorical finding, there was no occasion for learned Administrative Secretary to have kept the suspension of the petitioner intact and at the same time remanded the matter to the learned Director, Department of Rural Development and Panchayats, to pass appropriate orders.

8. Keeping in view the above, the order dated 06.02.2026 (Annexure P-14) passed by the learned Administrative Secretary to Government of Punjab, Department of Rural Development and Panchayats, to the extent whereby the suspension of the petitioner has been kept intact, is hereby set aside.

9. Resultantly, the present writ petition is, accordingly partly allowed and disposed of in the aforestated terms.