Chennai: The Madras high court on Wednesday dismissed a public interest litigation, which challenged the proposed merger of the Chandrasekarapuram village panchayat with Rasipuram municipality in Namakkal district.
“Whether a village panchayat shall be merged with a Municipality or not is not matter for the court to decide in PIL”, said the First Bench comprising Chief Justice Indira Banerjee and Justice Abdul Quddhose while dismissing a PIL from A. Vembusekaran, an ex-president of Chandrasekarapuram village panchayat.
The bench said, “Since the proposal has not been finalised, the petition is premature. Even otherwise, as observed by us whether a merger is expedient or not is not for the court to decide. It is needless to mention that the merger shall be effected in accordance with law”.
According to petitioner, along with 19 other villages, Chandrasekarapuram forms the Rasipuram Panchayat Union. Chandrasekarapuram along with 3 other villages were the largest in terms of area and also in revenue generation.
Rasipuram municipality has 27 wards and around 20,000 residential units. There was a news item recently in a newspaper that a proposal has been sent by the Rasipuram municipality commissioner to merge these 4 village panchayats with the municipality. This appears to have been done pursuant to the letter of the Commissioner of Municipal Adminsitration seeking reports regarding upgradation/merger of panchayat union, village panchayats.
Opposing the merger, he met the Rasipuram municipality commissioner and gave a representation signed by around 50 villagers of Chandrasekarapuram panchayat on January 2, 2018. Later, another representation was sent by post.
The villagers have also registered their objections in the Grama Sabha on January 26. However, there was no response till date, he added.
