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Judgment
Narayana Pai, C.J.—The petitioners in these cases question or impugn the appointments made by the Deputy Commissioner of the respondents as Panchayat Secretaries which have the result of displacing the petitioners from their position as Panchayat Secretaries.
The only ground on which the appointment made by the Deputy Commissioner is assailed is. that the appointment could have been competently made only by the Divisional Commissioner u/s 80 of the Mysore Village Panchayats and Local Boards Act, 1959, and not by the Deputy Commissioner of the District.
But u/s 197 (2) of the Mysore Village Panchayat and Local Boards Act the Government may by a notification delegate to the Deputy Commissioner any of the powers conferred by the Act on the Commissioner. By an order No. DPC 24 VET 70 dated 1st June 1970. published in the Mysore Gazette dated the 25th June 1970, the Government have authorised the Deputy Commissioners to appoint Village Accountants as Secretaries of Village Panchayats with an annual income of less than Rs. 12,000/-and also to appoint whole-time Secretaries temporarily in respect of Town Panchayats and Village Panchayats with an annual income of Rs. 12,000/- or more, from among persons then working as Secretaries having been recruited, as. per rules in force and who have passed the Lower Secondary Examination and are less than 50 years of age.
It is clear therefore that the Deputy Commissioner did have the power or competence to appoint the respondent-Village Accountants as Panchayat Secretaries also.
Both the writ petitions are, therefore, dismissed.