JUDGMENT

Dipak Misra, CJI.

India, a vast country, lives in villages. The Gram Sabhas in the ancient era were conferred certain powers so that there could be a feeling of participation in the societal and local issues and also to establish a socio-cultural amity among the members of the collective. History records with satisfaction that panchayats were able to settle disputes amongst the villagers and they had many a tool to focus on unity. Mahatma Gandhi, the father of the nation, emphasized on many an occasion that people should go to the villages to realize the true character of real India. He had said with emphasis that “”India lives in her seven hundred thousand villages” and “the soul of India lives in its villages”. The Constituent Assembly debates reflected on the importance of the villages but it thought appropriate to incorporate the concept of village panchayats in Article 40 of the Constitution which occurs in Chapter IV dealing with Directive Principles of State Policy. The said article provides that the State shall take steps to organize village panchayats and endow them with such powers and authorities as may be necessary to enable them to function as units of self-gove