The Telangana High Court on Friday dismissed writ petitions challenging merger of village panchayats with municipal corporations or municipalities concerned.
A division bench comprising Chief Justice Thottathil B. Radhakrishnan and Justice A. Rajasheker Reddy delivered the verdict stating that the petitioners could not make out a case to invalidate the impugned Amendment Act 4 of 2018.
In 2018, the Telangana government had merged some villages in the State with neighbouring municipalities and municipal corporations by amending the Telangana Municipal Corporations Act 1994 and the Telangana Municipalities Act 1965. Challenging the merger of villages with local urban bodies, sarpanches and members of these gram panchayats moved the High Court. Senior counsel for the petitioners contended that the amendments contradicted the basic structure of the parent Acts of 1994 and 1965. These changes violated the 73rd and the 74th Constitutional amendments, they argued. They presented to the bench that no notices were given to the sarpanches or ward members of the gram panchayats which were merged with local urban bodies. The bench held that the petitioners’ counsel could not present any facts to prove that the impugned legislation was violative of Article 14 of the Constitution. “There was no arbitrariness on the part of the State legislature in enacting the impugned legislation,” the bench noted in the judgment. The Constitution did not prohibit inclusion or exclusion of areas or merger of gram panchayats into a larger or smaller urban area, the verdict said. The bench did not agree with the contention of the petitioners that the legislature had no competence to bring out the impugned amendments. The bench observed that the Supreme Court had made it clear in many cases that a law made by State legislature or Parliament can be challenged only on the ground of violation of the Constitution or excessive delegation.