High Court has served notice to 31 newly elected members of Madikeri City Municipal Council, and has asked to give clarifications within the next 10 days.
The court has issued this notice in the backdrop of the writ petition filed by P P Chami, C N Changappa and M Y Rajesh, who lost in the recent elections. They complaint stated that the act of increasing the number of wards from 23 to 31 was unscientific and the act of the government of conducting election without bringing amendment to the legislation was illegal.
The notice has indicated that if the 31 new members do not appear before the court and give clarifications, they need to obey the court’s judgement.
Background
Former minister M C Nanaiah had complained to the State Election Commission (SEC) that the government’s act of increasing the number of CMC’s wards from 23 to 31 was unscientific. He had propagated that the wards that have population less than 35,000 could not be increased upto 31.
Consequently, the SEC had issued notice to the Urban Development Department asking it to clarify the move. The CMC had dropped elections when the SEC announced polls for the first time.
However, the government decided to conduct elections for 31 wards of Madikeri CMC as the High Court asked it to conduct elections to all local bodies that had completed their term.
Therefore, election was announced for Madikeri CMC too when the SEC published poll schedule for the second time.
The district administration had also justified that the wards were increased to 31 by using the special power, similar to that of the previous act of the government of upgrading the Madikeri Town Municipal Council to City Municipal Council. But the argument of the petitioners is that as per the Section 11 of Municipal Act, the wards cannot be increased from 23 to 31 on the basis of the population.
The petitioners have asked the court why the election of the new members could be considered as invalid as the previous coalition government’s act of increasing the numbers without amending the Act was illegal.
Totally, the new members’ issue has stepped into High Court much before the formation of the new CMC, and their future is dependant on the court judgement.