RESIDENTS WELFARE FEDERATION Vs. UT ADMINISTRATION

JUDGEMENT

(1.) By way of present petition under Articles 226/227 of the Constitution of India, the petitioner prays for a direction to the respondents to delimit Ward No. 14 of U.T. Chandigarh in view of the provisions of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 as extended to UT Chandigarh by the Punjab Municipal Corporation Law (Extension to Chandigarh) Act, 1994 (in short, "the 1994 Act") read with the Delimitation of Wards of Municipal Corporation Order, 1995 (in short, "the Order 1995").

(2.) A few facts relevant for the decision of the controversy involved as narrated in the petition may be noticed. The petitioner is a welfare federation and is representing the cause of residents of Sector 45, Chandigarh. The State of Punjab enacted the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 and in exercise of powers under Sec. 37 thereof, vide notification, it was extended to U.T. Chandigarh w.e.f. 24.05.1994 by the Municipal Corporation Law (Extension to Chandigarh) Act, 1994. Under the 1994 Act, Sec. 8 deals with creation of wards and the Administrator is given the power to divide the City into single member wards in such manner that the population of each of the wards shall, so far as, practicable be the same throughout the City. The Administrator has divided the City into 26 Wards at the time of constitution of Municipal Corporation in Chandigarh and there has been no increase in the Wards till date. The Chandigarh Administration, Department of Local Government, vide notification dated 16.05.1995 in exercise of the powers under Sec. 34 of the 1976 Act as extended to UT of Chandigarh by the 1994 Act, notified the Rules called the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh (Preparation of Electoral Rolls) Rules, 1995 (in short, "the Rules"). Under the Order 1995, Para 3 deals with constitution of Board. The Board is assigned the duty to divide the City into number of wards as may be necessary with reference to Sec. 8 of the 1994 Act. Under Para 4 (ii), thereof, the function of the Board is to readjust the wards as and when the limits of the city are altered or there is increase in the population of the city or there is abnormal variation in population or voting figures at some of the wards of the city which required such readjustment. Para 6 of the Order 1995 deals with the principles for delimitation of Wards of City. The petitioner has been agitating its claim with the respondents for creation of new ward for residents of Sector 45 separate from village Burail, which is at present integrated in Ward No.14. According to the petitioner, the constitution of Ward No.14 is unlawful because the clubbing of Urban and Rural area together is not permissible under the 1994 Act and the Rules nor is the object of creation of wards under the 1994 Act. The petitioner represented to the respondents against this clubbing and made a demand for readjustment/creation of new ward for the residents of Sector 45-A, B, C and D on 13.02.2009, Annexure P-2. Vide communication dated 24.03.2009, Annexure P.3, the Secretary Municipal Corporation asked the Area Councillor to send his comments on the representation of the residents. The petitioner avers that the Area Councillor belongs to Village Burail and has large number of unapproved Guest Houses. Thus, he did not support the cause of the residents. In the year 2011, the Census data was not available for the purpose of delimitation of wards, although the Municipal Corporation contemplated the proposal to increase the wards from 26 to 32 in the wake of increase of around 1.54 lacs population in 2011 Census as compared to 2001. The State Election Commissioner also proposed the idea of increase of wards. Finally, on 14.06.2011, the Advisor to the Administrator, U.T Chandigarh held meeting to discuss the process of delimitation of Wards of Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh. The constitution of Ward No.14 includes Village Burail and Sector 45. The density of population is extremely high. According to the petitioner, there is a total disparity in the utilization of funds under the Councillor Fund. Besides this, due to the removal of Colony No.5, a large of population has started residing in Village Burail, resulting into total ignorance of the residents of the Sector. Thus, the petitioner submits that keeping in view the population base, as the object of delimitation, one single ward can be independently created for Village Burail. The petitioner through its counsel obtained information under the Right to Information Act, 2005 (in short, "the RTI Act") with regard to the total budget, amount of budget utilized year wise from the year 2006 to till date of Village Burail and Sector 45 and the number of wards, therein vide application dated 18.04.2015 Annexure P-7. According to the information, data of utilization of funds in Ward No.14 is more than explicit and ? indicate that the Area Councillor has totally utilized the funds in Village Burail and hardly spent any money on the development of Sector 45. Hence, the petitioner through the instant petition prays for issuance of a direction to the respondents to act in accordance with the provisions of Sec. 8 of the 1994 Act read with Para 4 of the 1994 Order and 1995 Rules.

(3.) A written statement has been filed on behalf of the respondents through Additional Secretary Local Government, Chandigarh Administration, Chandigarh wherein it has been inter alia stated that for the purpose of constitution of elected body for the fifth term of the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh to be held in the third week of Dec. 2016, the Chandigarh Administration could not make any change in delimitation order issued in the year 2006 in respect of wards of the said corporation as Census Department, UT Chandigarh did not supply sector wise and colony wise figures of population of UT Chandigarh of the Census 2011 which is the basic requirement for the re-delimitation of wards of municipal area. It has been further stated that since the area of erstwhile Village Burail was included in the limits of the Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh due to the fact that there had been great density of population due to influx thereof and people living therein had been involved in non-agricultural activities. Thus, the area of erstwhile Village Burail has assumed the urban character and was required to be declared urban area and included in the limit of Municipal Corporation, Chandigarh vide notifications Annexures R.1 and R.2 dated 25.10.2006 and 19.9.2006 respectively. On these premises, prayer for dismissal of the petition has been made.