ZILE SINGH Vs. STATE OF HARYANA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) -Leave granted.

(2.) Haryana Municipal Act, 1973 (hereinafter, the Principal Act, for short) is a State enactment dealing with local self-government through the municipalities. Chapter III of the said Act deals with composition of municipalities. The Haryana Municipal (Amendment) Act, 1994 (Act No.3 of 1994) inserted Section 13A in Chapter III of the Principal Act which provision reads as under :-

(3.) The Amendment Act received the assent of the Governor of Haryana on the 1st April, 1994 which was published in the Haryana Gazette, (Extraordinary), Legislative Supplement, Part I, dated April 5, 1994 and on that the Amendment Act came into force. The amendment spelled out a disqualification effective from 5-4-1994 on a person for being a member of municipality either by election or by continuing to hold the office even if elected prior to the date of coming into force of the Amendment Act. The substantive provision contained in clause (c) abovesaid spelling out the disqualification is explicit and specific. However, the proviso appended to clause (c) turned out to be a trouble-maker on account of its faulty drafting. Anomalous consequences verging on absurdity flew from the proviso. While a person having more than two living children on 5th April, 1994 became disqualified for being a member of municipality on that day and the disqualification continued to operate for a period of one year calculated from 5th April, 1994 yet on the expiry of the period of one year the disqualification ceased to operate. Meaning thereby that the legislative embargo imposed on a person from procreating and giving birth to a third child in the context of holding the office of a member of municipality remained in operation for a period of one year only and thereafter it was lifted. Even those who became disqualified on 5-4-1994, the disqualification ceased to operate and they became qualified once again to contest the election and hold the office of member of a municipality on the expiry of one year from 5-4-1994. Obviously, that is not what the Legislature intended.