- (1.) The petitioner seeks for quashing of the order issued by the Deputy Director, Local Self Government staying the resolution passed by the Municipal Committee. The Resolution had been passed by the Municipal Committee on 9.5.1988, but the Deputy Director through the impugned order stayed the Resolution. The Municipal Committee expressed its competence to pass such an order in terms of Section 39 of Municipal Committee Act and further order was passed on 18.8.1988, reiterating its earlier decision holding that the Government had approved the scales of Rs. 570- Rs. 1080/- only to the post of Accountant Inspector and it was not possible to grant such a scale to the petitioner who had worked on the post of Accountant only for one year.
(2.) The issue of whether the Municipal Committee was competent to fix the scale for pay for persons who are not specifically in the cadre of provincialized service is no longer res integra. It has been held in earlier decision of this Court in Satish Kumar v. State of Punjab,1987 4 SLR 783 that Municipal Committee is competent to fill in all the posts under its administrative control by making appointments by direct recruitment or promotion so long as those posts were not specifically in the cadre of provincialized service and they are also competent to determine their own scales of pay. Section 39 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 reads as follows:- "39. Employment of other officers and servants. - (1) Subject to the provisions of this Act and the rules and bye-laws made thereunder, a committee may, and if so required by the State Government shall, employ other officers and servants and may assign to such officers and servants such remuneration as it may think fit, and may suspend, remove, dismiss, or otherwise punish any officer or servant so appointed. [Provided that no person who is a member of a committee shall be employed by a committee during the tenure of his term and for a period of twelve months thereafter.] [(2) Nothing in this section shall prevent the State Government from making any provision in the rules under this Act for the reservation of appointment or posts and to lay down methods to secure such reservation in favour of members of the Scheduled Castes, the Scheduled Tribes and such other backward classes of citizens which in the opinion of the State Government are not adequately represented in the services under the Municipal Committee.]"
(3.) The judgment referred to above has dealt with this issue in the context of Section 236 of the Municipal Act. The said Section reads as follows :- "236. Power to State government and its officers over committees:- (1) The State Government and Deputy Commissioners, acting under the orders of the State Government, shall be bound to require that the proceedings of the committees shall be in conformity with law and with the rules in force under any enactment for the time being, applicable to Punjab generally or the area over which the committee have authority. (2) The State Government may exercise all powers necessary for the performance of this duty, and may among other things, by order in writing, annual or modify any proceeding which it may consider not to be in conformity with law or with such rules as aforesaid, or for the reasons which would in its opinion justify an order by the Deputy Commissioner under Section 232. (3) The Deputy Commissioner may within his jurisdiction for the same purpose exercise such powers as may be conferred upon him by rule made in this behalf by the State Government." The Court held Section 236 of the Act gives wide powers of control to the Government, but these powers have to be exercised for ensuring that the Municipal Committee Act in accordance with law. Sub-Section (2) of this section authorizes the Government to exercise all powers necessary for the performance of its duties to ensure that the Committees writing annul or modify any proceedings of the Committee which appear to it to be not in conformity with law. In short, though the powers of the Government are wide yet they have to be exercised in a contingency when the action of the Committee appears to be not in conformity with law or the rules in force under any enactment which is applicable to Punjab. This power of control cannot be exercised either for an extraneous purpose or for reasons which do not exist in the eyes of law. There is yet another way of looking at the things. Section 236 of the Act entitles the Government to exercise control over the Municipal Committees and to set aside the resolutions passed by them if they are against the provisions of any law. In the garb of exercise of power under this section the Government cannot trip the Committees into errors and then to utilize that situation for annulling their resolutions. Even if the Government did have the technical power to annul the resolution of the Committee in exercise of power of control the Government will not be allowed to exercise this power if the error complained of against the Municipal Committee has been committed pursuant to a directive issued by the Government.;