Court No. - 6
Case :- WRIT - C No. - 11323 of 2018 Petitioner :- Durga Devi Respondent :- State Of U.P. And 03 Others Counsel for Petitioner :- Ramesh Kumar Singh Counsel for Respondent :- C.S.C.
Hon'ble B. Amit Sthalekar,J.
Heard Sri Ramesh Kumar Singh, learned counsel for the petitioner and the learned Standing Counsel for the State-Respondents.
This writ petition has been filed by one Durga Devi, who is stated to be the Gram Pradhan of Village Panchayat Sumatiyan, Block Chhanve, Tehsil Sadar, District Mirzapur through a private counsel namely, Sri Ramesh Kumar Singh.
It is not disputed that Sri Ramesh Kumar Singh is not a panel counsel for the Gaon Sabha in the Allahabad High Court. Appointment of Standing Counsel and other lawyers for Gaon Sabha is provided for in Section 72 of the U.P. Revenue Code, 2006, which reads as under:-
"72. Standing Counsel and other lawyers--(1) The State Government may, on such terms and conditions and in such manner as may be prescribed, appoint-
(a) one or more Standing Counsel (Revenue) each at Allahabad High Court and Lucknow Bench thereof;
(b) one or more Standing Counsel (Revenue) each for Board of Revenue Allahabad and Lucknow;
(c) one or more Divisional Government Counsel (Revenue) for the divisional head-quarter; and
(d) one District Government Counsel (Revenue) and one or more Additional District Government Counsel (Revenue) for the district head-quarter.
(2) The Collector may, on such terms and conditions and in such manner as may be prescribed appoint not more than two Panel Lawyers (Revenue) for every tahsil.
(3) Subject to the provisions of sub-section (2) of section 62, the legal practitioners appointed under sub-section (1) or sub-section (2) may plead or act, without any written authority, on behalf of any Gram Sabha, Gram Panchayat or Bhumi Prabandhak Samiti in any Court or authority for which he is so appointed.
(4) No Gram Sabha, Gram Panchayat or Bhumi Prabandhak Samiti shall engage any legal practitioner other than one appointed under this section without prior permission of the Collector.
(5) Notwithstanding anything contained in the Court Fees Act 1870 (Act No.7 of 1870) no Court fee shall be payable on any vakalatnama or memo of appearance filed by any legal practitioner appointed under this section.
(6) The legal practitioners appointed under this section shall not be competent to plead or act against any Gram Sabha, Gram Panchayat or Bhumi Prabandhak Samiti before any Court for which he is so appointed.
(7) The State Government may, by notification in the gazette, issue any direction, for monitoring of cases filed by or against Gram Panchayat, Gram Sabha or Bhumi Prabandhak Samiti and performance based annual appraisal of Panel Advocates appointed under this Code or the enactments repealed by it, and also for appointing any law officer for the aforesaid purpose."
Thus, the import of Sub Section (4) of Section 72 of the U.P. Revenue Code in clear and unambiguous terms is that no Gram Sabha, Gram Panchayat or Bhumi Prabandhak Samiti shall engage any legal practitioner other than one appointed under Section 72 without prior permission of the Collector.
Section 73 of the Code also provides for representation of Gram Panchayat and Sub Section (1) (c) states that in proceedings before the Board (Board of Revenue) or the High Court, the Gram Panchayat shall be represented by separate Standing Counsel (Revenue) of Lucknow or Allahabad, as the case may be. Sub Section (2) of Section 73, however, provides that nothing in this chapter shall preclude the State Government or the Collector from appointing special counsel for the conduct of any suit or proceeding in which any Gram Panchayat is party on such terms and conditions as may be prescribed. Section 73 of the U.P. Revenue Code, 2006 reads as under:-
"73. Representation of Gram Panchayat.-(1) In any suit or other proceedings under this Code, the Gram Panchayat shall be represented-
(a) in proceeding before the Collector or in a Civil Court, by the District Government Counsel (Revenue);
(b) in proceeding before the Commissioner, by the Divisional Government Counsel (Revenue), and;
(c) in proceeding before the Board or the High Court by the separate Standing Counsel (Revenue) of Lucknow or Allahabad, as the case may be.
(2) Nothing in this chapter shall preclude the State Government or the Collector from appointing special counsel for the conduct of any suit or proceeding to which any Gram Panchayat is party on such terms and conditions as may be prescribed."
Therefore, on a conjoint reading of the provisions of Section 72 and 73 of the Code, 2006, what emerges is that the Gram Sabha, Gram Panchayat or Bhumi Prabandhak Samiti shall not engage any legal practitioner other than one appointed under the Section without prior permission of the Collector and no Gram Panchayat shall be represented by any other counsel in the High Court other than counsel appointed for the purpose and if, it is necessary to engage services of another counsel other than the panel counsel, permission of the State Government or the Collector has to be taken.
In the present case, there is nothing on record to show that prior to the engagement of Sri Ramesh Kumar Singh, any prior permission was taken by the Gram Panchayat or by the Pradhan or by Durga Devi, who is the petitioner and Pradhan of the Gram Panchayat in question from the State Government or the Collector to engage Ramesh Kumar Singh as counsel.
For reasons aforesaid, this writ petition filed through Sri Ramesh Kumar Singh, counsel is not maintainable and is, therefore, dismissed.
The District Magistrate, Mirzapur, is, however, directed to recover the cost of filing of writ petition and fees paid to Sri Ramesh Kumar Singh from the Gram Panchayat or Gram Pradhan, as the case may be, within a period of one month from the date of receipt of a certified copy of this order in his office.
This order shall, however, not preclude the Gram Pradhan of the Village concerned from filing a separate writ petition through the panel counsel of the Gram Panchayat appointed for that purpose in the High Court.
Order Date :- 28.3.2018 N Tiwari