SANGUEM: The Ad hoc District Judge Cholu Gauns has quashed and set aside the impugned order passed by the Director of Panchayat whereby the Director had removed the Sarpanch and Deputy Sarpanch of Netravali Panchayat Rajani Gaonkar and Abhijit Dessai from their respective posts and also disqualified them from the panchayat membership for a period of five years.
In his judgement dated 07.06.2019, Judge Gauns held the order passed by the Director of Panchayat to be without any reasons and added that the Section 50 (5) of Goa Panchayat Raj Act which formed the basis for passing the impugned Order by the Director of Panchayat cannot be applied in the instant case.
The appellate court held that Section 50 (5) of Goa Panchayat Raj Act could be applied only on cases of persistent remission of duties and powers by the panchayat members. However, in the case under dispute, the matter pertained to only single incident of the panchayat body having collected garbage and parking fees from the people visiting the village which a villager Rakhi Naik challenged.
Moreover, the collection of the said fees by the panchayat was stopped barely after five days of the commencement of drive after the Director of Panchayat directed the panchayat to stop collecting the same as it was illegal and needed approval from the Government to collect such fees.
In its judgement, the appellate court held that the Director of Panchayat also failed to act against other panchayat members namely Prakash Bhagat and the panchayat who were otherwise named in the disqualification petition.
The court further held that except for the mention of Section 50 (5) of Goa Panchayat Raj Act for passing the impugned order, no specific reasoning was given by the Director of Panchayat while passing the order of dismissal of the duo from their respective posts and termination of their membership for a period of five years.
Nevertheless, it was also held that resolution taken by the panchayat for the collection of the garbage and parking fees still continues to remain in force as the same is not challenged before any authority as of date.
It may be noted that ever since the order by the Director of Panchayat, the Neturlim Panchayat is run by an administrator. An attempt made by the Director of Panchayat a month ago to conduct elections for the post of Sarpanch and Deputy Sarpanch proved futile as the majority members remained absent from voting at the special meet.
Adv C Ferreira appeared on behalf of the Petitioners. The Judgement and Order passed by the Ad hoc District Judge is largely welcomed by the Sarpanch Rajani Gaonkar and the Deputy Sarpanch Abhijit Dessai terming it to be the victory of the villagers.
