Southern States - Tamil Nadu   

SC defers hearing on petition against unseating of Stalin

By J. Venkatesan

NEW DELHI, JULY 1. The Supreme Court today deferred its hearing on a special leave petition against the interim orders of the Madras High Court declining to stay the operation of the `one-man one-post' legislation by which the Chennai Corporation Mayor, M. K. Stalin, was unseated. Mr. Stalin retained his MLA seat.

A vacation Bench, comprising Ruma Pal and Ashok Bhan, told counsel, K. M. Vijayan, that there was no urgency in hearing the SLP, challenging the constitutional validity of the Tamil Nadu Municipal Laws (Amendment) Act, 2002, and that it could be listed before a regular Bench after July 8, when the court reopens after the summer vacation.

In his SLP, S. Udhayakumar, advocate, submitted that by virtue of the amendment, a legislator holding the post of Mayor in a corporation, or councillor in a municipality or panchayat would cease to hold that post if he did not relinquish the post of MLA.

He said the High Court, in its interim order passed on June 18, granted only a partial stay of the notification. The stay was restricted to treating the Mayor post vacant and consequently, no election could be held to fill the post. The SLP was directed against this interim order.

Mr. Udhayakumar said that the High Court had committed an error in giving complete justice after concluding that there existed a prima facie case for granting the stay. The limited order failed to protect the directly-elected office of Mayor for its full term of five years provided under the Constitution.

The High Court's failure to exercise its jurisdiction properly to stay the impugned Act facilitated an unelected Deputy Mayor to hold the office by default. The duly-elected Mayor alone was entitled to hold the office as per the will of the people. The SLP raised important questions of law — whether the High Court had committed an error, abdicating its duty to give complete justice in a `lis'; whether it was right in not staying the retrospective legislative disqualification of an elected office of Mayor, which was not available on the date of such election, against constitutional prescriptions.

The petitioner prayed for the setting aside of the impugned High Court order and an interim stay of the legislation; to restrain the Tamil Nadu Government from filling in any manner the post of Mayor and to grant `status quo' for the existing duly-elected Mayor during the pendency of the SLP. If the interim stay was not granted, the injury caused could not be compensated in any manner, he said.

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