Judgment

H.K. SEMA, J. - The Constitution (Seventy - third Amendment) Act, 1992 came into force on 24 - 4 - 1993. The said amendment was brought into force to give effect to one of the directive principles of State policy, Article 40 of the Constitution of India, which directs the State to organise Village Panchayats as units of self - government. Article 40 reads as under:

"40. Organisation of Village Panchayats. - The State shall take steps to organise Village Panchayats and endow them with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self - government. "

2. Part IV of the Constitution deals with "directive principles of State policy". Article 37 provides that the provisions contained in this Part shall not be enforceable by any court, but the principles therein laid down are nevertheless fundamental in the governance of the country and it shall be the duty of the State to apply these principles in making laws.

3. By the 73rd Constitutional Amendment Article 243 - 0 was introduced in the Constitution of India. Article 243 - 0 reads as under:

"243 - 0. Powers, authority and responsibilities of Panchayats. - Subject to the provisions of the Constitution, the legislature of a State may, by law, endow the panchayats with such powers and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as institutions of self - government and such law may contain provisions for the devolution of powers and responsibilities upon Panchayats at the appropriate level, subject to such conditions as may a be specified therein, with respect to -

(a) the preparation of plans for economic development and social justice;

(b) the implementation of schemes for economic development and social justice as may be entrusted to them including those in relation to the matters listed in the Eleventh Schedule."

4. Article 243 - G, thus, endows the Panchayats with such power and authority as may be necessary to enable them to function as institutions of self - government. Such law may contain provisions for the devolution of powers and responsibilities upon Panchayats, subject to conditions as may be specified, with respect to the implementation of schemes for economic development and social justice as may be entrusted to them including those c in relation to the matters listed in the Eleventh Schedule of the Constitution.

5. To implement the 73rd Constitution Amendment, the Uttar Pradesh Panchayat Raj Act, 1947 (U.P. Act 26 of 1947) (hereinafter "the Act") was amended and various Government Orders were passed. We shall advert to the amendment and orders passed there under at an appropriate time.

6. We have heard S/Shri Sunil Gupta, P.N. Misra, Ashok H. Desai, Rakesh Dwivedi, N.C. Jain, Jawahar Lal Gupta, L. Nageswara Rao, M.N. Rao, P.P. Rao, A.K. Ganguli, Arun Jaitley, Mathai M. Paikeday, Dr. Rajeev Dhavan, Raju Ramachandran, S.K. Kalia, Ravindra Shrivastava, learned Senior Advocates appearing for various appellants/respondents. We have also heard other learned counsel appearing for different parties.

Facts

7. The facts in these appeals have a chequered history, which we may recite briefly. By Government Orders (G.Os.) dated 12 - 4 - 1999, 29 - 4 - 1999, 5 - 5 - 1999 and 27 - 5 - 1999 the services of the employees of eight departments were transferred to the Gram Panchayats. The employees, so transferred, were to serve the Gram Panchayats (GPs) as multi - purpose workers or Gram t, Panchayat Evam Vikas Adhikaris (GPVAs). The aforesaid orders were challenged by filing writ petitions on the grounds of CO arbitrariness, and (ii) (executive) interference with the statutory rights of government employees under the service rules made under Article 309 of the Constitution. The basic grievance raised was that whereas in the parent department, they were governed by respective service rules framed under Article 309 of the g Constitution, they were being transferred to Gram Panchayats where there were no service rules governing