NAMDEORAO MADHAVRAO THAKRE Vs. DULAJI SITARAM PATIL

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE judgment in this special civil application shall also govern the disposal of the reference in special civil application No. 103 of 1968.

(2.) IN both these special civil applications we are called upon to construe the expression 'total number of Councillors' contained in Section 49, Sub -section (7) of the Maharashtra Zilla Parishads and Panchayat Samitis Act. The circumstances under which the point arises may be briefly stated as follows: After the result of the general elections was announced in May 1967, the Nasik Zilla Parishad, which was constituted under Section 9 of the Act, met on August 12, 1967, to elect its President and Vice -President. The President elected is respondent No. 1 in special civil application No. 102 of 1968 and the Vice -President elected is respondent No. 1 in special civil application No. 103 of 1968. Less than three months after the election of the President and the Vice -President a requisition was sent by 34 Councillors of the Zilla Parishad calling for a special meeting to consider motions of no -confidence which they proposed to move against the President and the Vice -President under the provisions of Section 49. A special meeting of the Zilla Parishad was convened for January 2, 1968, to consider the two motions of no -confidence. At that meeting there were present in all 68 members. Since the motions of no -confidence were against both the President and the Vice -president according to the provisions of Section 49 (3) the meeting had to elect its own chairman, because the President or Vice -President against whom the motions were directed, were incapable of presiding at such a meeting. Before the meeting could take up the election of the chairman for that meeting, an objection came to be raised that one member, Kothavade by name, who had been a Councillor of the Zilla Parishad under Section 9(1)(c) i.e. in his ex -officio capacity as chairman of the Panchayat Samiti, had resigned his chairmanship of the Panchayat Samiti and had therefore ceased to be a Councillor of the Nasik Zilla Parishad. It appears that at the meeting Kothavade denied his signature upon the letter of resignation which was produced and insisted on voting though asked to leave the room. Ultimately he sat behind the other members and voted but his vote was excluded. The meeting proceeded to elect a chairman, one Sudam Bhaguji Sangle, to preside over the meeting which was to consider the no -confidence motion.

(3.) THE chairman of the meeting ruled that both the motions were duly carried because they were supported by a clear majority of the 'total number of Councillors' irrespective of the question whether Kothavade had validly voted or not.