‘City has over 300 villages’: PIL seeks HC directions to implement Delhi Panchayati Raj Act

As per the available data, it added. more than 300 villages are notified as rural or partially urbanised, where residents are engaged in agriculture and other “allied village activities”.

Written by Sohini Ghosh

New Delhi | August 28, 2025 06:25 AM IST

Delhi Panchayati Raj Act, Panchayati Raj Act, delhi high court, delhi news, India news, Indian express, current affairs

The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought a note from the Delhi government on the legislative history of the Capital, and also asked if the provisions of Delhi Panchayat Raj Act are applicable or if it stands repealed.

The bench of Chief Justice DK Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela was dealing with a public interest litigation by Satish Aggarwal, former vice-president of Akhil Bharat Hindu Mahasabha, seeking the court’s directions to the authorities to immediately implement the Delhi Panchayati Raj Act in the villages of NCT of Delhi.

Submitting that the Act has been in existence since 1954 with elections to Delhi’s panchayats held only up to 1989, the PIL claims that the municipal corporations in the Capital have “encroached upon the territorial jurisdiction of gaon panchayats, and municipal laws are being applied to rural areas/villages of Delhi”, depriving villagers of their constitutional rights, including of self governance.

The PIL has also claimed that Delhi, despite being a union territory with a legislature, has failed to implement the Panchayati Raj system in its village areas, and contrary to general perception of the city being entirely urban, “several notified rural villages still exist in the National Capital Territory”. As per the available data, it added. more than 300 villages are notified as rural or partially urbanised, where residents are engaged in agriculture and other “allied village activities”.

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