KRISHNA PRASAD SINGH Vs. STATE OF BIHAR

JUDGEMENT

(1.) The petitioners in the twelve writ applications have challenged the vires of the Bihar Municipal (Amendment) Ordinance, 1978 (hereinafter to be referred to as "the Ordinance"), and, with consent of the parties, they have been heard together and are being disposed of by this common order. The main attack is on Section 4 of the said Ordinance, by virtue of which, on promulgation of the Ordinance on the 16th February, 1978, the members and office bearers of all the Notified Area Committees, including the petitioners, ceased to hold their respective offices.

(2.) The petitioners in all these writ applications are members and office bearers of twelve Notified Area Committees, namely, (1) Futwah, (2) Kasha, (3) Masaurhi, (4) Janakpur, (5) Dumra, (6) Behea, (7) Narkatiaganj, (8) Rajgir, (9) Mahnar, (10), Dalsingsarai, (11) Hussaini-bad and (12) Hilsa. The Notified Area Committees were established for the aforesaid places by notifications issued from time to time under Section 388 of the Bihar and Orissa Municipal Act (hereinafter referred to as "the Act") by the State Government. Some of them are old ones having been established as early as in 1937, such as, Dumra Notified Area Committee, while others are of comparatively recent origin. It is not necessary to state the details as to their establishment and constitution as given in the respective writ applications. Suffice it to refer, briefly, to the facts of the first case, namely, C. W. J. C. No. 403 of 1978, which relates to Futwah Notified Area Committee, to bring home the questions raised in all these writ applications, inasmuch as the petitioners in all these writ applications were nominated as members or Commissioners of their respective Notified Area Committees more or less during the said period (late 1973 to early 1977) and the petitioners have not run out the tenure of five years to which they claim to be entitled by virtue of Section 29 of the Act, which the petitioners allege has been arbitrarily terminated and cut short by 2 to 3 years by the Ordinance. The Ordinance has also put a restriction on the number of members that could be appointed in a Notified Area Committee on the basis of population between 10,000 and 20,000, which ordinarily used to be 40 in the case of each Notified Area Committee, thus reducing the number of membership of a Notified Area Committee.

(3.) The petitioners grievance in C. W. J. C. No. 403 of 1978 as also in other writ applications is that the election of the members of the Bihar Legislative Council, representing the local bodies, is due to be held in April 1978 and the petitioners being members of the Notified Area Committee are voters of the Electoral College of the Bihar Legislative Council representing the local authorities constituency a right of which they have been arbitrarily deprived by mala fide and colourable exercise of power under the Ordinance. The petitioners have filed a copy of the Ordinance as Annexure "2". A copy of the Gazette Notification dated the 21st March, 1968, constituting Futwah Notified Area Committee under Section 388 of the Act and also applying, under Section 389 (a), certain provisions of the Act has been filed as Annexure '3'. In all the writ applications the parties have proceeded on the footing that in the case of other Notified Area Committees also those very provisions of the Act, or at any rate, those relevant for our consideration, have been made applicable. By a supplementary affidavit the petitioners (of C. W. J. C. No. 403 of 1978) have alleged that the Ordinance was issued with ulterior motive to remove the petitioners and other members of the Notified Area Committee who were appointed by the previous Government in power, namely, the Congress Government. The "mala fide in law is further envisaged in the conduct" of the Government of Janta Party headed by Sri Karpoori Thakur on the eve of the election of the members of the Bihar Legislative Council representing the local bodies by introducing a law in the Act to nominate new members in place of the existing members who may support the candidate of the party in power for election in the legislative council and the whole motive behind the move was political in nature. Another Supplementary affidavit was filed on the 10th March, 1978 wherein it has been asserted that the Ordinance is violative of Article 14 of the Constitution on the ground that it is discriminatory between the sitting members of the Notified Area Committee and the members who may be appointed in their place.