Response on merger of 23 village panchayats in Indore municipal limits delayed again

For the fifth time, the Madhya Pradesh government has sought for more time from the high court to prove legitimacy of its gazetted notification on the merger of 23 village panchayats with the Indore Municipal Corporation limits.

For the fifth time, the Madhya Pradesh government has sought for more time from the high court to prove legitimacy of its gazetted notification on the merger of 23 village panchayats with the Indore Municipal Corporation limits.

According to petitioner and Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) leader Anil Trivedi, the government snatched away the autonomy of the village panchayats through the notification and did not follow due procedure established by law.

The state government on Friday once again sought four weeks’ extension from the high court to file a reply in the matter without citing any substantive reasons for the delay.

“The government (is caught on the wrong), hence it is procrastinating... They had not called for objections of the villagers, nor did they dissolve the village panchayats according to the procedures laid down by the constitution and the Madhya Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act,” he said.

Though the merger notification was earlier cancelled by the high court due its constitutionality in February 2014, the government still went ahead and passed another merger notification. It obtained a stay order from the Supreme Court and even conducted municipal elections.

Recently, during a commemoration meeting, advocate Trivedi slammed the government’s authoritarian move and acting beyond the statutes of the constitution.

If the notification is proved illegitimate and quashed by the high court another time, the civic body elections held in Indore earlier this year after the merger of the 23 village panchayats will be declared null and void.