India News | Court Asks Govt Not to Issue Notification on Gram Panchyats' Reorganisation Pending Panel's Report
Get latest articles and stories on India at LatestLY. The Rajasthan High Court has instructed the state government not to issue notifications for the formation of the proposed gram panchayats until a high-level committee's decision on the petitioners' objections is presented before the court.
Jodhpur, May 26 (PTI) The Rajasthan High Court has instructed the state government not to issue notifications for the formation of the proposed gram panchayats until a high-level committee's decision on the petitioners' objections is presented before the court.
This directive from a single bench of Justice Dinesh Mehta came on Friday while hearing more than 40 petitions challenging the proposed restructuring of gram panchayats.
The petitioners claimed that the state government had significantly violated the guidelines issued on January 10, 2025, regarding the reorganisation process.
The petitions raised concerns about the alleged lack of transparency in adding and removing villages. They claimed that several new panchayat headquarters are planned in remote villages or those with relatively small populations.
Furthermore, some proposals include locations where there is no suitable land available for constructing panchayat buildings. Instead of prioritising more developed and populous villages, less developed areas with limited basic infrastructure are being designated as headquarters, it was claimed.
Representing the state government, Advocate General Rajendra Prasad assured the court that the proposals are still at an initial stage.
A three-member committee has been established to review the submissions received from district collectors.
He emphasised that the collectors have been instructed to forward proposals to the state government only after thoroughly considering the objections raised by local residents.
After hearing the arguments, the court scheduled the next hearing for July 7 and expressed confidence that district collectors would impartially evaluate all objections.
The court also ordered that the list of objections from all petitions be submitted to the committee through the Advocate General's office.
The committee is expected to make decisions on all proposals in line with the January 10, 2025 guidelines and the court's observations.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)