duties pertaining to legal matters and complaints against Panchas, Sarr anches and the members of the Panchayat Samitis were of such nature that the same required a legal background and field experience by the officer handling the subject. Those duties were, therefore, given to Deputy Director of Panchayat (Legal) who was a Law graduate and had a long field experience as Block Development and Panchayat Officer. After the reorganisation of the Department, the only work left with the Panchayati Raj Election Officer was that of conducting elec~ions of Panchayati Raj Bodies. As this work was of a periodical nature, the Government thought it fit to abolish it. It was also stated in another affidavit filed on behalf of the appellant-State that the post of Panchayati Raj• Election Officer and the seven posts of field Deputy Directors were abolished as an ecoonmy measure to meet financial stringency. We see no cogent ground to question the averments made in the above affidavits. The averments show that the decision to abolish the post of Panchayati Raj Election Officer was taken because of administrative reasons. The question as to whether greater economy could have been brought about by adopting some other course is not for the court to go into, for the court cannot sit as a court of appeal in such matters. It may be that some of the functions which were being previously performed by the respondent are now being performed by Deputy Directors whose posts have not been abolished, this fact would not show that the decision to abolish the post held by the respondent was not taken in good faith. After the posts of Deputy Directors had been created and had been in existence along with the post of Panchayati Raj Election Officer for a number of months, the Government, it would appear, decided to abolish some of the posts to meet the financial stringency. In taking the decision as to which post to abolish and which not to abolish, the Government, it seems, took into account the relative usefulness of each post and decided to abolish the seven posts of field Deputy Directors and the one post of Panchayati Raj Election Officer. This was a matter well within the administrative discretion of the Government and as the decision in this respect appears to have been taken in good faith, the same cannot be quashed by the court. The fact that the post to be abolished is held by a person who is confirmed in that post and the post which is not abolished is held by a person who is not permanent would not affect the legality of the decision to abolish the former post as long as the decision to abolish the post is taken in good faith. We would, therefore, hold that the High Court was in error in quashing the order of the Government whereby the post of Panchayati Raj Election Officer had been abolished.
