HC allows appointment of private persons as Panchayat administrators

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said the Maharashtra government can appoint private persons as administrators of Gram Panchayats if a government servant or official of the local authority is not available.

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday said the Maharashtra government can appoint private persons as administrators of Gram Panchayats if a government servant or official of the local authority is not available. A division bench of Justices Nitin Jamdar and Abhay Ahuja, in an interim order, said the administrator should be preferably a government servant or an official of the local authority.

If such official is not available, then a private individual can be appointed but "only after recording the reasons in writing and setting out the circumstances in which such government officer was not available", it said. The court was hearing petitions filed by Vilas Kunjir and Pradeep Hulawale challenging the government resolutions (GRs) of July 13 and 14 about appointment of administrators to the Gram Panchayats.

The GRs said that a private person, who is resident of the same village and whose name is in the voters' list, can be appointed as administrator. The petitioners argued that until now administrators were officials of the government or the local authority.

Senior counsel Milind Sathe, the petitioners' lawyer, sought an interim order restraining government from appointing a private person pending the hearing of the petitions. "Such mass appointments will have a lasting adverse impact on the local governance in the state," Sathe argued.

Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni said there were a large number of Panchayats in Maharashtra, and government servants are already overburdened. The high court noted that Gram Panchayat elections can not be held because of the coronavirus pandemic, and if an administrator is not appointed, it will affect the local village body's work.

The court, however, said that government servants or local official should be the first choice, and if they are not available and the appointment of a private individual is to be made, "a reasoned order setting out the circumstances should be passed". The bench posted the petitions for further hearing on July 27 and directed the government to file its affidavit.

The interim order shall be subject to final orders in the petitions, it clarified.

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