GATU Vs. STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) THE petitioners have moved for a writ of mandamus or prohibition or any other appropriate writ declaring that the Notification dated 24th November, 1959, issued by the State Government cancelling their nominations to the Municipal Board, Chhappar, was illegal and ultra vires, and that no action could be taken by the authorities on the basis of the Notification in question.

(2.) THE relevant facts are that under sec. 9 of the Rajasthan Town Municipalities Act, 1951 ( Act No. XXIII of 1951 - hereinafter called "the old Act), the Government appears to have nominated the petitioners as members of the Municipal Board, Chhapar. This was done on the 15th of October, 1959. It is said that the order of the Government nominating these petitioners as members of the Municipal Board was communicated to the Chairman of the Municipal Board on the 21st of October 1959, who in his turn informed the petitioners of the said order. THEre were however, some clerical errors in the order inasmuch as the name of the second petitioner Nanaga had been shown as "nanag", while the name of the husband of the first petitioner Mst. Gatu was shown as "bhanmal", when in fact it should have been Manmal. THE Chairman, Municipal Board, therefore, wrote to the authorities on the 22nd of October, 1959, asking the errors to be rectified ; but the order was subsequently published on the 5th of November, 1959, in the official Gazette containing the errors aforesaid. On the 24th of November the Government issued the Notification now impugned under which it was noticed that since the Rajasthan Town Municipalities Act, 1959 (Act No. 38 of 1959 - hereinafter referred to as ''the new Act"), had come into operation and the new Act contained no provision for nomination by the State Government, the nomination of the petitioners as members of the Board was cancelled and option was left to the Municipal Board, Chhapar, to proceed to co-opt certain members as contemplated by the new Act.