ATUL KUMAR PATEL Vs. STATE OF M.P.

JUDGEMENT

(1.) ALL the aforesaid writ petitions involve common questions of law, therefore, they are disposed of by this common order.

(2.) FOR convenient disposal of all the aforesaid writ petitions, the facts given in Atul Kumar Patel v. State of M.P. (W.P. No. 1722/97), are taken into consideration.

(3.) THE petitioner is a councillor of Municipal Corporation, Burhanpur. He is vitally interested in the welfare of the people and their welfare tends to be frustrated by the impugned Act, a copy of which has been placed on record as Annexure P/1. It is also pointed out that recently part II -A of the Constitution of India was amended and by which, Article 243 was introduced arid Part -IX provided for Panchayats and Part -IX -A provided for Municipalities. Articles 224, 243 -P to 243 -20 were introduced by the Constitution (74th Amendment) Act, 1992, by which the new dimension was given to local bodies. The Local Bodies were made to become more autonomus in their governance. In persuance of this, the Government of India amended their Municipal laws in all over the country and accordingly, the State Government of Madhya Pradesh also amended Municipal Corporation Act, 1956 as also M.P. Municipalities Act, 1961 by the Amending Act, 1997, which is known as M.P. Nagar Palik Vidhi (Sanshodhan) Adhiniyam, 1997 (Act No. 18 of 1997) (hereinafter referred to as the' Act of 1997). This Amendment in the Municipal Corporation Act, 1956, came into force w.e.f 21.4.1997. In the present case, we are only concerned with the validity of .section 4,9,19, 23 -A, 24 and 24 -A of the Act of 1997.