- (1.) THIS appeal under Clause 10 of the Letters Patent is directed against the judgment and order dated September 28, 1973, of a learned Single Judge of this Court allowing the writ petition of respondents 1 to 6 and setting aside the election of the appellants as the representatives of the Municipal Committee, Kot Kapura, for being appointed members of the Kot Kapura Improvement Trust under Section 5 (4) of the Punjab Town Improvement Act, 1922 (hereinafter called the 'act'), The learned Single Judge decided two petitions under Article 226 of the Constitution of India (C. W. No. 1613 of 1973 Dharam Vir v. Municipal Committee, Kot Kapura and C. W. No. 2189 of 1973 Sohan Lal Ahuja v. Dev Mittar Ahuja) by his judgment and order dated September 28, 1973, which has since been reported as Dharam Vir v. Municipal Committee, Kot Kapura 1974 Cur LJ 37. Both the writ petitions were allowed and the election of 3 members of the Municipal Committee in each case for appointment as members of the Improvement Trust was set aside. An appeal under Clause 10 of the Letters Patent filed against the judgment in C. W. No. 2139 of 1973 was accepted by a Division Bench of this Court on November 29, 1973, and is reported as Dev Mittar Ahuja v. Sohan Lal Ahuja, 1974 Cur LJ 166. The present appeal under Clause 10 of the Letters Patent has been filed by Durga Dass and others (respondents in C. W. 1613 of 1973), and it came up for hearing before my learned brother Narula, J. , (as my Lord the Chief justice then was) and myself on April 2, 1974, when the learned counsel for respondents 1 to 6 submitted that the decision of the Division Bench in Dev Mittar Ahuja's case (supra) required reconsideration. We accordingly directed that this appeal may be heard by a Full Bench of at least 3 Judges and that is how this appeal has come up for hearing before us,
(2.) THE facts of the case lie in a narrow compass and stated briefly are that a 2nd class Municipal Committee consisting of 19 members exists for the town of Kot Kapura, district Faridkot. For constituting the Improvement Trust. Kot Kapura, 3 trustees were to be elected from amongst the members of the Municipal Committee under Section 4 of the Act. The Executive Officer of the Municipal Committee issued notices to all the members on May 4, 1973, for a meeting to be held on May 11, 1973, to consider the letter of the Deputy Commissioner for sending the names of 3 members. after election. The meeting was held under the Chairmanship of Chanda Singh, President, who announced in the meeting that the election to the 3 seats of the trustees would be held one by one and not at the same time, that is, the names for one seat would be proposed and seconded and then the members present would be asked to vote for or against the proposed candidates, and after the result is declared, the same procedure would be followed for electing the trustees for the second and the third seats. The writ petitioners, who are respondents 1 to 6 to this appeal objected to the mode of election announced by the President and strongly urged that each member should have one vote for all the 3 seats and that 3 members obtaining highest number of votes should be declared elected. Their plea was that the election was one for which each member should have one vote and he should exercise that vote in favour of one candidate and not 3 votes to be exercised in respect of each of the three members to be elected by the Municipal Committee. This view was not accepted and they walked out of the meeting, thus refusing to take part in the election. Thereafter, the remaining 12 members elected the appellants as the trustees for the Improvement Trust, Kot Kapura. Their election was challenged by respondents 1 to 6 in Civil Writ No. 1613 of 1973 which was accepted and the election of the appellants was set aside.
(3.) IN order to decide whether the procedure followed by the President of the Municipal Committee was correct or the procedure suggested by respondents 1 to 6 was correct, it is necessary to set out the relevant provisions of the Act which are as under:-- "s. 4. (1) The trust shall consist of seven trustees, namely,-- (a) a Chairman, (b) three members of the Municipal Committee, and (c) three other persons. (2) x x x (3) The members of the Municipal Committee referred to in Clause (b) of Sub-section (1) shall be elected by the Municipal Committee. (4) If the Municipal Committee does not by such date as may be fixed by the State Government elect a person to be a trustee, the State Government shall, by notification, appoint a member of the Municipal Committee to be a trustee, and any person so appointed shall be deemed to be a trustee as if he had been duly elected by the Municipal Committee. (5) x x x S. 4-A. During the period of supersession of a Municipal Committee under Section 238 of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911, the three seats allotted to the Municipal Committee on the trust under Clause (b) of Sub-section (1) of Section 4 shall be filled by the State Government by appointing any three persons by notification in the Official Gazette. The term of office of every trustee so appointed shall be three years or until the Trust is dissolved, whichever period is less provided that if the Municipal Committee is reconstituted, three members of the Municipal Committee shall be elected or appointed in accordance with the provisions of Section 4, and on their election or appointment the three trustees appointed by the State Government under this section shall cease to be members of the Trust. S. 6. The term of office of every trustee elected under Clause (b) of Sub-section (1) of Section 4 shall be three years or until he ceases to be a member of the Municipal Committee, whichever period is less, and the term of office of every trustee appointed under Clause (c) of the said sub-section shall be three years, but when the trust ceases to exist, the said term of office shall be deemed to expire on the date of the dissolution of the trust. S. 8. (1) When the place of a trustee appointed by the State Government, becomes vacant by his resignation, removal or death, the State Government shall appoint a person to fill the vacancy. (2) When the place of an elected trustee becomes vacant by his resignation, removal or death, the vacancy shall be filled, within two months of the existence of such vacancy being notified to the Municipal Committee by the trust, in the manner provided by Sub-section (3) of Section 4, provided that if the Municipal Committee fails to elect a qualified person to fill the vacancy within the period herein prescribed, the provisions of subsection (4) of the said section shall apply. (3) Every person appointed or elected to fill a casual vacancy under this section shall hold his place for the time for and subject to the conditions upon which it was tenable by the person in whose place he has been so appointed or elected, and no longer; but he may, if otherwise qualified, be re-appointed or re-elected : Provided that no person elected or appointed under Sub-section (2) shall continue to be a trustee after he ceases to be a member of the Municipal Committee, but he may so continue notwithstanding that the trustee in whose place he was elected or appointed has ceased to be a member of the said committee. " From these provisions it is evident that 3 seats on the Improvement Trust have to be filled by three members of the Municipal Committee to be elected by the Municipal Committee. The term of office of a member of the Municipal Committee, as trustee of the Improvement Trust is 3 years or until he ceases to be a member of the Municipal Committee, whichever period is less. It is, therefore, necessary that the member elected by the Municipal Committee must continue to be its member as long as he serves as a trustee of the Improvement Trust.;