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Judgment
Kanwaljit Singh Ahluwalia, J.—In the present writ petition, a prayer has been made that resolution No. 52 dated 23.11.2007 (Annexure P1), whereby the powers were given to the Mayor to constitute the Finance and Contract Committee, House Tax Assessment Committee, Buildings and Roads Committee, Water Supply and Sewerage Disposal Committee, be quashed. It is pleaded in the writ petition that procedure adopted to elect members of the Committee is alien to the democratic institutions and the very character of the Local Self Government will suffer.
Learned Counsel for the petitioner has heavily relied upon Section 42(4) of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Act, 1976 (hereinafter referred to as "1976 Act"), which reads as under:
...(4) There shall also be a Finance and Contracts Committee of the Corporation comprising the Mayor, the two Deputy Mayors, two Councillors elected by the Councillors from amongst themselves and the Commissioners and the aforesaid Committee shall exercise all the powers of the Corporation in relation to contracts to be entered into for and on its behalf and the purchase so be made by it.
In the present writ petition, the General House of the Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar, vide resolution (Annexure P1), had abdicated the powers to the Mayor to constitute the Committees. Subsequently, the nominations proposed by the Mayor were accepted by the General House. A perusal of Annexure P1 reveals that when motion to this effect was put up before the General House, then the members of the opposition staged walked out.
It is stated that the term of the Committee is coming to an end on 22.9.2010.
Mr. Amit Rawal, Advocate, appearing for the petitioner, has submitted that he will not assail the constitution of the Committee but will confine his prayer to the effect that in future the procedure, as envisaged u/s 42(4) of the 1976 Act, should be followed in letter and spirit.
Mr. Amit Sethi, Advocate, appearing for respondents No. 2 to 4, has no objection to the said prayer.
Since learned Counsel for the petitioner has confined his prayer to the future election of the members to the Committee, the present writ petition is disposed of with a direction that the Municipal Corporation, Jalandhar, shall rigorously follow Section 42(4) of the 1976 Act.
With the observations made above, the present writ petition is disposed of.