KHOT Vs. RAJASTHAN STATE

JUDGEMENT

(1.) This is an application by Khot alias K. G. Lakhani under Article 226 of the Constitution of India praying that a writ in the nature of 'quo warranto', or such other order as may be appropriate, be issued against the Rajasthan State and 13 others, calling upon them to show cause by what authority opposite parties Nos. 2 to 14 claim to act as convener and members of an 'ad hoc' committee exercising the powers of President and members respectively of the Municipal Board, Jodhpur, and forbidding them from so acting, it they are unable to show such authority.

(2.) The facts, which have led to this application, may be briefly narrated. There is a Municipal Board established for the City of Jodhpur under the Jodhpur Municipal Act, 1943. This Municipal Board has been constituted under Section 7 of the Act of 1943 as a body corporate having perpetual succession and a common seal and the power of acquiring, holding and transferring property, movable or immovable & of contracting. The Board was in existence up to the 13th of May, 1950. On that date an order was passed under Section 9, Subsection (2) of the Act of 1943, which was published in the Rajasthan Gazette of the 20th of May 1950, in the following terms:

(3.) It appears that the elections could not be held within three months, and we are told that the term of office of the Collector as Administrator was extended from time to time, though there seems to have been no notification to this effect.