MPs, MLAs have right to vote in CMC meetings: HC

‘Once a person becomes member of municipal council, he is a councillor’

Recognising the rights of MPs and MLAs to vote in city municipal councils in the State, the Karnataka High Court on Thursday declared that MPs and MLAs have the right to vote in municipal council meetings, whether special or general, as per the Karnataka Municipalities Act 1964

“Once a person becomes a member of the municipal council, he is a councillor as per Section 2(6) of the Act. Of course, the mode of appointment, term of office, or rights of each one of the three classes of councillors may be different, but the same cannot give rise to an inference that only persons elected directly as councillors alone would have voting right and the others are excluded,” the court said.

Verdict

A Division Bench, comprising Justice B. Sreenivase Gowda and Justice A.V. Chandrashekhara of the Kalaburagi Bench of the High Court, delivered the verdict while setting aside the August 26 order of the court.

The court had, earlier, held that MPs and MLAs have no right to vote in the special meeting of a city municipal council convened for deciding no-confidence motion against the president of the council and had declared that the no-confidence motion adopted by Basavakalyan City Municipal Council against its then president Shahjahan Begum was illegal due to voting by Basavakalyan’s MLA and Bidar’s MP.

Prohibition

However, the Bench said that the Constitution has specifically prohibited only nominated members from exercising their right in the municipal council meetings. “Such bar, according to us, is unambiguous and only against a class of persons. There is no scope to add ay other class,” the Division Bench said.

Referring to various amendments made to the Karnataka Municipalities Act, the Division Bench pointed out that MPs and MLAs were specifically denied voting right in the municipal councils till 1994.

Also, the Division Bench noticed that the then Section 47-A, which had barred MPs and MLAs from voting in municipal council meetings, was deleted in 1994 and that the objective and reasons of certain amendments made to the Act subsequently specifically spoke about participation of MLAs and MPs in the deliberation of municipalities and their voting right in the meetings.

Intention

“If the intention of the Legislature was to continue the restriction found in Section 47-A on the voting right of MLAs/MPs, Section 47-A of the Act would have been allowed to continue in the statute book,” the Division Bench observed.

No-trust motion

During January this year, in a no-confidence motion passed in the Basavakalyan City Municipal Council, municipal president Shahjahan Begum of the Congress was removed with MLAs, MLCs and MPs taking part in voting. In her place, Abdul Gafar of the Janata Dal (S) was elected municipal president.

This was challenged in a writ petition by Shahjahan Begum, in the High Court.