SAVITABEN MADHUKAR MAKIWANA Vs. STATE OF GUJARAT

JUDGEMENT

(1.) . The petitioners who are the elected Councillors of the respondent No. 3-Municipality have challenged the order dated 12th February, 1997 - Annexure "H" to the petition, passed by the State Government under the provisions of S.263(1) of the Gujarat Municipalities Act, 1963, dissolving the respondent No. 3-Kalol Municipality and appointing the Deputy Collector of Mehsana to be the Administrator.

(2.) . In the election of the Municipality which was held in 1994, the petitioners who are 23 Councillors and other Councillors were declared elected. In January, 1995, President, Vice-President and Chairman of the Standing Committee of the Municipality were also elected. There were in all 36 Municipal Councillors in the respondent-Municipality, of whom one passed away. According to the petitioners, six defaulting Councillors had passed certain resolutions behind their back, which were not acceptable to the petitioners.

(3.) . The acts of mismanagement had attracted the attention of the concerned authorities and a show-cause notice dated 7th January, 1997 was issued to the Municipality by the Government under S.263(1) of the Act. The Municipality was called upon to show cause as to why it should not be dissolved under S.263(1) for the reasons which were mentioned in the schedule to the show-cause notice. As many as fifteen grounds were mentioned in the said schedule.