Mumbai: Maharashtra The government has filed its affidavit to oppose and dismiss a petition challenging its move to increase the nine seats in the coming year. BMC Election.
The state said that for the first time it was brought to its notice that the population had grown at a growth rate of 3.87 per cent and it was its duty to proportionately increase the total number of municipal councilors in view of the increase.
A petition challenging the constitutional validity of increasing the number of civic constituencies was filed by two municipal councilors before the Bombay High Court last month. The HC on Wednesday said it will now hear the matter on January 7. The decision to increase the number of municipal councilors was taken by the state cabinet on the basis of 2011. Census figures, the last available data, and was “entirely in the domain of the state legislature”, the reply stated.
Senior advocates Milind Sathe and Nikhil Sakhardande, Abhijit Samant and Rajshree Shirwadkar for the petitioners submitted on 9 December that the ordinance is arbitrary and illegal, furthermore contrary to the constitutional mandate in Part 9 which deals with the Constitution and the powers and provision of municipalities. Is. Mumbai Municipal Corporation ,mmc) Work.
The State’s reply to the petition states, “Most of the grounds, raised in the petition, such as unjust, arbitrary, malicious, politically motivated etc., are those relating to executive action or permissible challenges to attack a There are administrative decisions but not legislative actions.”
The petition “has miserably failed to appreciate the distinction between an administrative action, and an executive decision on the one hand and a legislative action on the other,” the reply said.
In response to the state, it has been said that in 1991 the population of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation 98,09,936 or less than 1 crore and thus provided 221 councillors. In 2001 census, the population of Mumbai increased to 1.19 crore and the state increased the number of seats to 227.
In the year 2011, the census determined the population to be 1.24 crore (1,24,42,373).
“The population has increased by 3.87 per cent,” the state said, adding that the data is available in the public domain. In 2021, no census exercise was conducted. central government Due to the pandemic and thus the 2011 figures were brought to the notice of the State by the Municipal Commissioner on November 3, 2021.
The state said that in view of the figures, it was considered appropriate that the total number of municipal councilors should also increase in the same proportion and hence this figure was increased to 236 on the ordinance of 30 November 2021.
“It cannot be argued by any stretch of the imagination that since the State Government had not taken cognizance of the 2011 Census data for the elections held in 2012 and 2017, the State Government cannot consider it as permanent. ” The state said that since there are elections for the BMC in February, the ordinance was necessary.
The state said that for the first time it was brought to its notice that the population had grown at a growth rate of 3.87 per cent and it was its duty to proportionately increase the total number of municipal councilors in view of the increase.
A petition challenging the constitutional validity of increasing the number of civic constituencies was filed by two municipal councilors before the Bombay High Court last month. The HC on Wednesday said it will now hear the matter on January 7. The decision to increase the number of municipal councilors was taken by the state cabinet on the basis of 2011. Census figures, the last available data, and was “entirely in the domain of the state legislature”, the reply stated.
Senior advocates Milind Sathe and Nikhil Sakhardande, Abhijit Samant and Rajshree Shirwadkar for the petitioners submitted on 9 December that the ordinance is arbitrary and illegal, furthermore contrary to the constitutional mandate in Part 9 which deals with the Constitution and the powers and provision of municipalities. Is. Mumbai Municipal Corporation ,mmc) Work.
The State’s reply to the petition states, “Most of the grounds, raised in the petition, such as unjust, arbitrary, malicious, politically motivated etc., are those relating to executive action or permissible challenges to attack a There are administrative decisions but not legislative actions.”
The petition “has miserably failed to appreciate the distinction between an administrative action, and an executive decision on the one hand and a legislative action on the other,” the reply said.
In response to the state, it has been said that in 1991 the population of Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation 98,09,936 or less than 1 crore and thus provided 221 councillors. In 2001 census, the population of Mumbai increased to 1.19 crore and the state increased the number of seats to 227.
In the year 2011, the census determined the population to be 1.24 crore (1,24,42,373).
“The population has increased by 3.87 per cent,” the state said, adding that the data is available in the public domain. In 2021, no census exercise was conducted. central government Due to the pandemic and thus the 2011 figures were brought to the notice of the State by the Municipal Commissioner on November 3, 2021.
The state said that in view of the figures, it was considered appropriate that the total number of municipal councilors should also increase in the same proportion and hence this figure was increased to 236 on the ordinance of 30 November 2021.
“It cannot be argued by any stretch of the imagination that since the State Government had not taken cognizance of the 2011 Census data for the elections held in 2012 and 2017, the State Government cannot consider it as permanent. ” The state said that since there are elections for the BMC in February, the ordinance was necessary.
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