The Madras High Court has refused to entertain a plea moved by a lawyer claiming that the posts of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of a Corporation are Constitutional posts and not providing fixed salary to them amounts to violation of Article 14 (equality before law) of the Constitution.
The principal contention of the petitioner — M. Purushothaman — that when there are provisions made for payment of salaries to elected representatives such as MPs, MLAs and other authorities, why should the posts of Mayor, Deputy Mayor or councillors not receive fixed remuneration was rejected by the First Bench comprising Chief Justice S.K. Kaul and Justice R. Mahadevan, saying that the issue was of legislative exercise.
“It is for the State government to examine as to whether it would like any change in the legislative enactment. We are thus not inclined to grant the relief as prayed for by the petitioner and leave it to the State government to examine whether it would like to have a re-look at the provisions of the Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act,” the Judges said, and closed the plea.
Claiming that the elected representative of a local body was barred from holding an office of profit, the petitioner contended that the State was not providing any salary for these elected representatives. “The government cannot exploit these public servants,” Mr. Purushothaman said.
