Madhya Pradesh High Court: This case was filed before a Bench of Rohit Arya, J., where petitioner who was a sarpanch was suspended.
Petitioner contended that he was suspended by the impugned order on the ground that a case had been registered for the commission of offence under Sections 7, 13(1)(d) and 13 (2) of the Prevention of Corruption Act, 1988. It is under Section 39(1)(a) of the Madhya Pradesh Panchayat Raj Avam Gram Swaraj Adhiniyam, 1993 that the competent authority had the power to suspend an office bearer of Panchayat if any charges are framed under any criminal proceedings under Chapters V-A, VI, IX. Thus, impugned order was without jurisdiction and illegal since no charges were framed against the petitioner.
High Court found substantial force in the submission made by the petitioner regarding the scope of Section 39 of the Act. Thus, Court was of the view that impugned order was without authority and exceeded the powers under Section 39(1)(a) of the Act. Therefore, the impugned order was set aside. [Vinod v. Panchaya and Social Justice, 2019 SCC OnLine MP 137, dated 14-01-2019]
