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Judgment
Registry to waive office objections and register the matter.
Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of the parties, the Petition is disposed of finally.
The only question before me in this Petition is whether the impugned order dated 16.01.2025 remanding the case back to the Panchayat could have been passed by the Director of Panchayats without affording the complainant/Petitioner herein, an opportunity of being heard. It is the Petitioner’s case, which is not in dispute, that he is the original complainant and had filed an application for impleadment in the Appeal No.251/2024 before the Director of Panchayats filed by the Respondent No.5. Admittedly, without hearing the complainant or even allowing the application for impleadment, the Appeal came to be allowed and the matter remanded back to the Panchayat. The impugned order is, therefore, in contravention of the principles of natural justice and has not considered the complainant’s contention. In this view of the matter, the impugned order dated 16.01.2025 stands quashed and set aside.
Learned Advocate for Respondent No.5, the original Appellant, submits that they have no objection to the Petitioner being impleaded in the Appeal. In this view of the matter, the Director of Panchayats is directed to permit the application for impleadment filed by the Petitioner and the cause-title of the Appeal be amended.
The parties shall appear before the Additional Director of Panchayats-I, North Goa, on 13.01.2026 at 03:00PM, before whom Appeal No.251/2024, which now stands restored, shall be taken up for hearing, the impleadment application be allowed, cause-title amended to include the name of the Petitioner and the matter be thereafter heard and disposed of. The Directorate of Panchayat may fix such date as is convenient to it, for hearing of the Appeal on merits and dispose of the same, preferably within three months from the date of the first appearance, i.e. on 13.01.2026.
Rule is made absolute in the aforesaid terms.