SHANKERLAL CHAUBEY Vs. MUNICIPAL CORPORATION, JABALPUR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THIS petition under Articles 226 and 227 of the Constitution is mainly directed against a resolution of the Municipal Corporation, No. 22 dated 10 August 1963.

(2.) THE facts giving rise to this petition may be briefly stated. Upon the death of the permanent incumbent, B.P. Wadia, the post of Secretary of the Corporation fell vacant. On 10 August 1962, the Standing Committee directed the petitioner to hold temporarily, in addition to his own duties, the current charge of the duties of the post of Secretary. On 8 August 1963, the Commissioner of the Corporation appointed, temporarily and until further orders, M. Mukerjee, the Corporation Counsel, as Secretary of the Corporation and directed that, on relief, the petitioner would revert to his substantive appointment as internal Audit Officer. Thereupon, the Standing Committee passed the resolution No. 395. The Corporation, by the impugned resolution No. 22 which it passed in a special meeting called on 10 August 1963, directed that the resolution of the Standing Committee be not implemented, resolved to invite applications for the post of Secretary from candidates having the prescribed qualifications and appointed M. Mukerjee to hold charge of the post, in addition to his own, until it was filled. The petitioner's repeated request that he should be placed in charge of the post of Secretary went unheeded. Nay, the Corporation made a reference to the State Government presumably for an order suspending the operation of the Standing Committee's resolution No. 395 under section 421, of the Madhya Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, 1956, as applying to the whole of Madhya Pradesh by virtue of the Madhya Pradesh Municipal Corporation Law (Extension) Act, 1960.

(3.) SECTION 58 of the Municipal Corporation Act, 1956, which admittedly governs this matter, reads as follows: