BALRAM Vs. CORPORATION FOR JABALPUR CITY

JUDGEMENT

(1.) IN this application under article 226 of the Constitution by the Chairman and two members of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Corporation of Jabalpur, the prayer of the petitioners in that a direction be issued to the Corporation for bearing it from discussing a resolution expressing no -confidence in the Standing Committee and directing the Commissioner of the Corporation to take necessary steps for the election of a new Standing Committee.

(2.) THE matter arisen thus: On 12th December 1963 ten members of the Corporation sent a requisition to the Mayor requesting him to call a meeting of the Corporation for discussing the resolution stated in their written requisition. On receipt of this requisition, the Mayor called a special meeting of the Corporation on 18th December 1963 at 6 p.m. The Secretary of the Corporation, acting under the orders of the Mayor, issued notices of the meeting to the members of the Corporation on 14th December 1963. The resolution, which the requisitionists wanted to be discussed at the meeting, was in Hindi. It was to the effect that on the resignation of the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor, belonging to the Praja Socialist Party, it was expected that the Standing Committee constituted by the members of that Party would also resign; but the Standing Committee had not done so and continued to function arbitrarily, on the basis of groupism and regardless of the interests of the Corporation. The resolution gave one instance of the manner in which the Standing Committee was functioning, and ended by expressing no -confidence in the Committee and contained a direction to the Commissioner to take necessary steps for the constitute on of a new Committee.

(3.) THE petitioners' corporation is that the Standing Committee is a statutory body constituted under section 37 of the Madhya Pradesh Municipal Corporation Act, 1956, (hereinafter called the Act), and the Act nowhere gives to the Corporation the power and jurisdiction to consider and discuss any motion of no confidence against the Standing Committee that under section 38(2) of the Act the term of office of the Standing Committee is one year; and that the Corporation has no power to cut down this term in any manner and to direct the Commissioner to commence proceedings for the election of a new Standing Committee after the passing of a motion of no confidence by the Corporation against the Committee. No return has been filed in the case by the opponents and at the time of the hearing of the petition none appeared before us on their behalf We have not, therefore', had the advantage of knowing the views of the Corporation as to the legal sanction behind the action they intended to take.