Bombay HC sets aside appointment of Ganesh Bidkar as Leader of House in PMC

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The court judgement this Monday is being seen as a major setback for the ruling BJP in PMC ahead of the coming civic polls and an embarrassment for the party at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi would be visiting the civic headquarters for unveiling a statue of Maratha king Shivaji and laying the foundation stone for the Rs 4,700 crore riverfront development project and Rs 1,600 crore river improvement project. The event is to be held on March 6 and the ruling BJP has been working to make it a grand ceremony while displaying a show of strength ahead of civic elections.

Hearing a petition filed by elected councillor Ravindra Dhangekar, a division bench of Justice S G Dighe and Justice A A Sayed on February 28 quashed and set aside the appointment of Bidkar as the Leader of the House in the PMC.

The court added that it would be inappropriate to grant stay on operation and effect of its judgement for two weeks as per the request made by Bidkar’s counsel. “Only on the assurance of the counsel that Bidkar would not discharge functions as Leader of House in the PMC, we stay the operation of this order for a period of two weeks,” the bench said. Incidentally, the five-year term of the general body of PMC ends on March 14 after which the state government has to appoint an administrator till the new general body is formed following the civic elections.

The court noted in its judgement, “The  concept  of  a nominated councillor as spelt out by the 2012 Rules under the law demonstrates that these councillors are not persons who necessarily belong to a political  party. In  fact, ideally they are expected to  be apolitical and expert in their respective fields specified by the 2012 Rules. The basic philosophy in nominating such persons as councillors is to advise the corporation which may require their expertise for carrying out its duties and perform its functions more  efficiently and effectively. Leader of the House is a position or post that is created by the Act and to get recognised as the Leader  of  the House is a statutory right and not a common law right or a Constitutional right, much less a fundamental  right.”

The court cited Section 19-1A of the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation (MMC) Act, 1949, which stipulates who can be appointed in the Corporation as the Leader of the House and states that only  an  ‘elected councillor’ shall be eligible to be a Leader of the House.

“The ruling BJP, with a majority strength of 99 councillors in the civic body, got Bidkar illegally appointed as the Leader of the House in PMC. He was appointed 14 months ago despite objections against a nominated councilor being appointed to the coveted post. The court has now set aside his appointment,” said Dhangekar, an Independent councillor affiliated to Congress.

Dhangekar said he has asked the municipal commissioner to follow the court judgement and also cancel all the decisions taken by Bidkar as the Leader of House, failing which he would inform the court.

Petitioner’s counsel Kapil Rathod said he had sought stay on the judgement for two weeks but the court gave stay to the operation of judgement on the assurance that Bidkar would not function as the Leader of the House for two weeks. “It is clear that Bidkar cannot discharge duties or take decisions as Leader of House from the day of judgement,” he said.

Bidkar said that he would follow the court judgement and would appeal against it in the Supreme Court. “I am confident that the Supreme Court would rule in my favour,” he said. With inputs from Omkar Gokhale