SANGEET LODHA,J. - (1.) By way of this petition, the petitioners have questioned legality of order dated 28.1.16, issued by the Director, Local Self, Government of Rajasthan, constituting Executive Committee and other Committees of Municipal Board, Bhinmal, in exercise of the power conferred under sub-section (5) of Section 55 of Rajasthan Municipalities Act, 2009 ( for short "the Act").
(2.) Learned counsel appearing for the petitioners contended that the action of the State Government in constituting an Executive Committee consisting of twelve members is contrary to law inasmuch as, as per the mandate of provisions of Section 55 (1)(v) of the Act, number of members in the Executive Committee cannot exceed five. Learned counsel submit that besides Chairperson and Vice Chairperson, the leader of opposition is required to be included in the Executive Committee constituted, however, while issuing the order impunged, instead of included the petitioner Hakim Khan, who is leader of opposition, one Shri Guman Mal Parmar, has been included as member, showing him to be the opposition leader. Learned counsel submit that unless and until, there is specific failure of the Municipal Board in constituting the Committees as per the mandate of provisions of Section 55 of the Act, the State Government has no power to constitute the Committees and therefore, the order impugned deserves to be quashed.
(3.) On the other hand, the counsel appearing for the respondents submit that while relying upon the provisions of Section 55 (1)(v) of the Act, learned counsel for the petitioners has ignored the provisions of Section 55 (1)(vi), which provides that the Chairperson of the Committees constituted by the Municipality under sub-section (3) shall be the member of the Executive Committee. Learned counsel submit that besides the Chairperson of the Municipal Board, out of eleven members, six persons namely; Ramesh Rathi, Shyam Lal Bohra, Jairoopa Ram Mali, Jaisingh Rao, Smt. Basi Devi Banjara and Smt. Darmi Kanwar, are included as members in the Executive Committee, being Chairpersons of the various Committees constituted by the order impugned. Learned counsel fairly submit that instead of petitioner, Guman Mal Parmar, has wrongly been included as member of the Executive Committee and the Municipal Board has already indicated the error in the order to the State Government. Learned counsel would submit that the error crept in shall be rectified by issuing an appropriate order, expeditiously. Learned counsel submit that as per the mandate of provisions of sub-section (5) of Section 55, if the concerned Municipality fails to constitute the Committees as per mandate of provisions of Section 55 of the Act, within a period of 90 days of the constitution of the Municipality, the State Government is empowered to constitute such Committees and thus, the order impugned issued by the State Government admittedly, after expiry of the stipulated period, cannot be faulted with.;