RAMESHWAR PRASAD AGARWAL Vs. A K SINHA

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The Chairman of the Arrah Municipality has sought, by this application under Article 226 of the Constitution, to quash by a writ in the nature of certiorari, the proceedings of and the resolution passed in the special meeting of the Commissioner of that Municipality held on the 8th February 1964, and a for direction to the respondents, the Commissioners, restraining them from giving effect to that resolution. The impugned resolution reads as follows :

(2.) The resolution of the 31st March 1983 of the meeting of the Commissioners in supersession of which the impugned resolution was passed has not been produced by the petitioner, nor called for from the respondents. Both sides proceeded on the basis that that resolution was under Section 75 of the Bihar and Orissa Municipal Act (which shall be referred hereafter as the Act). That section is as follows :

(3.) Learned Counsel for the petitioner urged that Section 75 could not be taken as the basis of the impugned resolution as the resolution itself speaks of authorising the Finance Committee "to pass orders for all payments to be made on behalf of the municipality" and not authorising expenditure of any sum provided in the estimates of the budget. There may be some apparent force in this contention but on scrutiny it wilt not stand. The resolution refers to Section 75 of the Act, and in that context, it authorises passing orders for all payments. Though the proper words should have been authorisation of expenditure, yet there cannot be any doubt that the resolution meant that. Even assuming that on a strict interpretation, the resolution was not in compliance with the provisions of Section 75 (1), there will be little purpose in quashing that resolution for that defect at this belated stage, since it has already long spent its force.