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TMI Blog1955 (2) TMI 11X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... h May 1951. The term of the councillors was three years computed from the date of the first general meetinog held after the general election aforesaid-in this case the 10th July 1951. In that meeting the 4th and 5th respondents were elected President and Vice-President respectively of the municipality for a term of three years. The Act was amended by Bombay Act XXXV of 1954, under which the term of office of the councillors was extended from 3 to 4 years ending on the 9th July 1955. As the term of respondents 4 and 5 aforesaid was to expire at the end of three years from the 10th July 1951 and as the term of the municipality was extended by one year under the amending Act aforesaid, the vacancies thus occurring bad to be filled up by a fresh election of President and Vice-President. The Collector therefore called a special general meeting of the municipality to be held on the 30th July 1954 to elect a President and Vice-President for the remaining period of the quadrennium. The Collector had nominated the Prant Officer (the District Deputy Collector) to preside over that special general meeting. On the 30th July 1954 the Prant Officer under instructions from the Collector adjourned ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ection of the 2nd and 3rd respondents was not illegal and dismissed the application. It held that on a proper construction of the relevant provisions of the Act it was not correct to say that the term of office of the councillors or of the newly elected President and Vice-President shall end with the 9th July 1955; that the intention was to elect the President and the Vice-President for the remaining term of the municipality which was not only a period of four years certain but an additional period up to 7 the date when new President and Vice-President A would be elected and take over after a fresh general election; that the adjournment of the meeting of the 30th July was not beyond the powers of the presiding officer; and that consequently the meeting of the 3rd August was not vitiated by any illegality. It was also pointed out by the High Court that all the councillors constituting the municipality had notice of the adjourned meeting and did as a matter of fact attend that meeting and that even if there was any irregularity in the adjournment on the 30th July 1954 that did not affect the illegality of the adjourned meeting and the business transacted therein. The appellant moved ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... that the appellant was not the councillor who had objected to the adjournment of the meeting of the 30th July and could not therefore object to it at a later stage. Finally it was argued that the appellant had no right to a writ or order prayed for as he had not been injured in any sense. It would thus appear that there are two main questions in controversy between the parties, namely, (1) whether the meeting of the 3rd August, 1954 had been validly held; and (2) whether the president and the vice-president having been elected for the remaining period of the quadrennium had been validly elected. There are a number of subsidiary questions bearing upon these two main questions which have been canvassed before us, A good deal of argument was addressed to us contending that the presiding officer had no power to adjourn the meeting of the 30th July 1954 in view of the provisions of section 35(11) of the Act. In this connection reference was also made to the proviso to section 19-A(2). Those provisions, it was argued,, point to the conclusion that the powers of the presiding officer are the same as those of the president of a municipality when presiding over an ordinary me ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ority adjourns the meeting to 3rd August 1954 at 3 P.m. . At that meeting all the 32 councillors were present and admittedly in their presence the presiding officer declared openly that the meeting will be held on the 3rd August 1954 under instructions from the Collector concerned. When the meeting was held on the 3rd August 1954 at 3 P.m. as previously notified, again the 32 councillors were present. The proceedings show that the same Prant Officer occupied the chair as authorised by the Collector . The presiding authority read out and explained to the members present the following telegraphic message from the Collector: Government have directed to bold election of President of Gadag Municipality on 3rd August as already arranged. Hold election accordingly today without fail . At this meeting the appellant raised two points of order, (1) that the election of the president for the remaining period of the quadrennium as mentioned in the agenda was illegal, and (2) that the meeting was not an adjourned meeting of the municipality and was also illegal because it -was under the instructions of the Collector that the adjourned meeting was being held and that the Collector had ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... eting of the 30th July as also of the 3rd August 1954. It was he who had appointed the Prant Officer as the presiding officer for both those meetings. It is true that the notice of the meeting of the 3rd August 1954 had not been given in writing but had only been intimated to all the councillors who were present at the meeting of the 30th July 1954. The notice amply satisfies the requirement of three days clear notice, though it was not in writing. It had indicated the time of the meeting and the business to be transacted. Under section 35(4) the ordinary venue of a meeting is the municipal office unless otherwise indicated in the notice. It is also true that the notice was not served in the manner indicated in sub-section (3) of section 35 of the Act. There is no evidence that there existed a local vernacular newspaper with large circulation, in which the notice of the meeting could be published. The question is, do those omissions render the notice ineffective in law. That could only be so if those provisions were held to be mandatory. The following provisions (omitting the words not material to this case) would show that those provisions of section 35(3) are directory and no ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ollector or his nominee does not hold the meeting, it is not competent for councillors present to elect their own chairman for presiding over such a meeting. Therefore if the presiding authority admittedly under instructions from the Collector refused to proceed with the elections on the 30th July 1954, the councillors present could not hold a meeting of their own with a president of their own choice and transact the only business on the agenda, namely, the election of president. Hence, rightly or wrongly, if the meeting called for the 30th July was not held, another meeting had to be held for the purpose within 25 days of the occurrence of the vacancy. In this case, as a result of the expiry of the original term of office of the president and vice-president, another meeting giving the required three days statutory notice had to be held. The meeting held on the 3rd August 1954 was such a meeting. Indeed, there were some omissions in the manner of publication or service of the notice but those in law were mere irregularities which do not have the effect of vitiating the election held at that meeting. The election of the president therefore, if not otherwise invalid, could not be ass ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e said date and before the coming into force of this Act, shall be deemed to be valid as if this Act bad been in force on the said date; and any person elected to the office of the president or vice-president at any of such elections shall not be deemed to have been illegally elected merely on the ground that the residue of the term of office of the municipality being less than one year at the time of such election, he would hold his office for a term less than one year in contravention of section 19 of the Bombay Municipal Boroughs Act, 1925, as it was in operation before the coming into force of this Act. (2)Nothing contained in this section shall affect the judgment, decree or order of any competent court, passed before the coming into force of this Act, holding any of such elections invalid on the ground specified in subsection (1) . It has not been contended that section 19 as amended by Act LIV of 1954 does not in terms cover the elections now impugned, nor that section 3 of the amending Act quoted above is not retrospective; but it has been urged on behalf of the appellant that it is not retrospective to the extent of affecting pending proceedings. In terms the amendme ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... e and the rule nisi for a prohibition was therefore discharged. In every case the language of the amending statute has to be examined to find out whether the legislature clearly intended even pending proceedings to be affected by such statute. A number of authorities were cited before us but it is only necessary to refer to the decision of their Lordships of the Judicial Committee in Mukerjee, Official Receiver v. Ramratan Kuer([1935] L.R. 63 I.A. 47), which is clearly in point. In that case while an appeal had been pending before the Judicial Committee the amending Act had been passed clearly showing that the Act was retrospective in the sense that it applied to all cases of a particular description, without reference to pending litigation. In those circumstances their Lordships pointed out that if any saving were to be implied in favour of pending proceedings, then the provisions of the statute would largely be rendered nugatory. Those observations apply with full force to the present case, inasmuch as if any saving were to be implied in favour of cases pending on the date of the amendment, the words all elections to the office of the president or vicepresident, held on or after ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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