HC orders Hamirpur DC to call MC meeting to discuss no trust motion

The HP High Court has quashed and set aside a communication issued by the Deputy Commissioner, Hamirpur, on July 27, 2024, whereby he had rejected a request of the elected members of the Municipal Council, Hamirpur, to convene a special meeting of the House to discuss a no confidence motion against the president of the civic body.

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Justice Sandeep Sharma quashed the communication and directed the DC to convene a meeting of the House in terms of the requisition submitted on July 25 by a majority of the elected members, in accordance with the law.

The court passed the judgment on a petition filed by Vinay Kumar and others challenging the order of the Hamirpur DC conveying to the elected members of the council that there was no requirement/provision to fix a special meeting of the House to discuss the no confidence motion.

The election of the Hamirpur MC was held in May 2021 and its 11 elected members chose Manoj Minhas as the president of the civic body. Since then, Minhas was discharging the duty of the president of the council without a break. However, eight elected members addressed a communication to the DC stating that they were not satisfied with the functioning of the president of the MC and as such, they intended to bring a no confidence motion against him.

While allowing the petition, Justice Sandeep Sharma observed that “admittedly, in the case at hand, a majority of the elected members vide a requisition dated March 1, 2024, had called upon the DC to convene a meeting of the House, as they had lost faith in the elected president. At the first instance, the DC, having taken note of the aforesaid request submitted by the majority of the elected council members, passed an order on March 2, authorising the SDM (C), Hamirpur, to convene a special meeting of the House to discuss the no confidence motion brought against the president of the council. Though the SDO (C), Hamirpur, while complying with the DC’s order, had fixed a special meeting of the House but it was never convened.”

The court observed that “since in the case at hand there is nothing to suggest that the requisition submitted on March 1, 2024, by the majority of the elected members of the MC was ever laid before the House, the DC could not have rejected the subsequent requisition submitted on July 25 by them thereby expressing their intention to bring a no confidence motion against the elected president ”. — OC