The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Chennai News : Court declines to stay council meet

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Wednesday, Feb 01, 2006

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Chennai

Court declines to stay council meet

Special Correspondent

Deputy Mayor R. Thiagarajan's plea dismissed In the absence of the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor the Government was entitled to delegate powers to the Corporation Commissioner under Section 42 of the Chennai City Municipal Corporation

CHENNAI: The Madras High Court on Tuesday declined to stay the convening of the Chennai Corporation Council meeting on February 1 and 2.

Justice D. Murugesan, dismissing a writ miscellaneous petition from the Deputy Mayor R. Thiagarajan, ruled that in the absence of the Mayor and the Deputy Mayor the Government was entitled to delegate powers to the Corporation Commissioner under Section 42 of the Chennai City Municipal Corporation.

He, however, made it clear that the business transactions of the council would be decided by the Councillors themselves, and that it need not be in a manner as specified by the Commissioner in his press notification.

On a letter from Mr. Thiagarajan seeking to convene the budget session of the Council on February 23 and 24, Mr. Justice Murugesan said that since the last meeting was held on November 21, 2005, the next Council meeting should be held before February 21, 2006 in any case.

Government Order

Even assuming that the communication was indeed from the Deputy Mayor, the date he had opted would be beyond the mandatory three-month period between Council meetings.

Under these circumstances the Government was correct in issuing the Order dated January 17, 2006, authorising the Commissioner to convene meeting.

He reiterated that while the Commissioner's powers ended with convening the meeting, it was the councillors who must decide the business transactions.

While the Additional Advocate-General, A.L. Somayaji, submitted that the Government had sufficient powers to devolve certain powers upon the Commissioner under this kind of circumstances, K. Chandru, senior counsel for the Deputy Mayor, said two meetings were sought to be convened on February 1 and 2, with a mala fide intention of disqualifying Mr. Thiagarajan from holding the Deputy Mayor post.

Printer friendly page
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail