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TMI Blog1960 (11) TMI 121X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... pondents 1 to 10 were elected, and five others, who are not parties before us, were nominated, to that Committee. On November 27, 1953, the Rajpramukh of the State of Hyderabad published a notification under the relevant Acts in the Hyderabad Government Gazette Extraordinary notifying the above persons as members of the said Committee. Presumably with a view to democratize the local institutions in that part of the country and to bring them on a par with those prevailing in the neighbouring States, the Hyderabad District Municipalities Act, 1956 (XVIII of 1956), (hereinafter referred to as the Act), was passed by the Hyderabad _ Legislature and it received the assent of the President on August 9, 1956. Under s. 320 of the Act the Hyderabad Municipal and Town Committees Act, 1951 (XXVII of 1951) and other connected Acts were repealed. As a transitory measure, under the same section any Committee constituted under the enactment so repealed was deemed to have been constituted under the Act and the members of the said Committee were to continue to hold office till the first meeting of the Committee was called under s. 35 of the Act. Under that provision respondents 1 to 10 and the five ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... t. Mr. P. A. Chowdury, learned counsel for the appellants, canvassed the correctness of the findings of the High Court. His first argument may be summarized thus: Under s. 320 of the Act any Committee constituted under the repealed enactment shall be deemed to have been constituted under the Act and the members of the said Committee shall continue to hold office till the first meeting of the Committee is called under s. 35 of the Act. Under s. 35 of the Act, the first meeting of the Committee shall not be held on a date prior to the date on which the term of the outgoing members expires under s. 34. Section 34 of the Act provides that the members shall hold office for a term of three years. Therefore, the term of the members of the Committee deemed to have been constituted under s. 320 is three years from the date on which the Act came into force. If the term fixed Under s. 34 does not apply to the members of the said Committee, the result will be that the said members will continue to hold office indefinitely, for the first meeting of the Committee could not be legally convened under the Act as s. 16 which enables the Collector to do so imposes a duty on him to hold a general e ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ch provides for the culminating stage of the process of election under the Act says that the names of all members finally elected to any Committee shall be forthwith published in the official Gazette. Section 34 prescribes the term of office of the members so elected. Under it, except as is otherwise provided in this Act, members shall hold office for a term of three years. Section 320(1)(a) provides a different term for the members of the Committee deemed to have been constituted under the Act. Thereunder, the term is fixed not by any number of years but by the happening of an event. The Committee constituted under s. 320 clearly falls under the exception. But it is suggested that the exception refers only to s. 28 whereunder a member of a, Committee ceases to be one by a supervening disqualification. Firstly, this section does not fix a term but only imposes a disqualification on the basis of a term fixed under s. 34; secondly, assuming that the said section also fixes a term, the exception may as well cover both the deviations from the normal rule. That apart, sub-s. (2) of s. 34 dispels any doubt that may arise on the construction of sub-section (1) of the section. Under sub ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... se of a statute should be construed with reference to the context and the other clauses of the Act, so as, so far as possible, to make a consistent enactment of the whole statute or series of statutes relating to the subject-matter. To appreciate the problem presented and to give an adequate answer to the same, it would be necessary and convenient to notice the scheme of the Act as reflected in the relevant sections, namely, ss. 16, 17, 18, 20, 32, 34 and 320. The said scheme of the Act may be stated thus: Under the Act, there are general elections and elections to casual vacancies. The general elections may be in regard to the first election after the Act came into force or to the subsequent elections under the Act. Section 5 imposes a duty on the Government to constitute a Municipal Committee for each town and notify the date when it shall come into existence. Section 17 enjoins on the Government to issue a notification calling upon all the constituencies to elect members in accordance with the provisions of the, Act on or before such date or dates as may be specified in the said notification. Section 16 imposes a duty upon the Collector to hold a general election in the mann ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ted under the Act the second limb of the section cannot apply and as the Collector's power is limited by the second limb of the section, the Collector has no power to hold the first general election under the Act. If this interpretation be accepted, the Act would become a dead-letter and-the obvious intention of the Legislature would be defeated. Such a construction cannot be accepted except in cases of absolute intractability of the language used. While the Legislature repealed the earlier Act with an express intention to constitute new Committees on broad based democratic principles, by this interpretation the Committee under the old Act perpetuates itself indefinitely. In our view, s. 16(1) does not have any such effect. Section 16(1) may be read along with the aforesaid other relevant provisions of the Act. If so read, it would be clear that it could not apply to the first election after the Act came into force, but should be confined to subsequent elections. So far as the first general election is concerned, there is a self-contained and integrated machinery for holding the election without in any way calling in aid the provisions of s. 16(1). Section 17 applies to all ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... nsel for the respondents, states that there are many good reasons why the Government did not implement the Act. There may be many such reasons, but when the Legislature made an Act in 1956, with a view to democratize municipal administration in that part of the country so as to bring it on a par with that obtaining in other States, it is no answer to say that the Government had good reasons for not implementing the Act. If the Government had any such reasons, that might be an occasion for moving the Legislature to repeal the Act or to amend it. If the affected parties had filed a writ of mandamus in time, this situation could have been avoided ; but it was not done. We hope and trust that the Government would take immediate steps to hold elections to the Municipal Committee so that the body constituted as early as 1953, under a different Act could be replaced by an elected body under the Act. Even so, learned counsel for the appellants contends that the Municipal Committee had no power to sell the land acquired by it for constructing a market. To appreciate this contention it would be convenient to notice the relevant provisions of the Act. Under s. 72(f) all land or other property ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... be made only with the sanction of the Government; and (4) the sale is not exempted by the Government, by general or special order, from the operation of s. 77 of the Act. It is not disputed that the relevant conditions have been complied with in the present case. If so, the power of the Committee to alienate the property cannot be questioned. Learned counsel contends that the provisions of s. 76 govern the situation and that s. 77 may apply only to a property vested in the Committee under provisions other than those of ss. 72(f), 73 and 74, and that further, if a wider interpretation was given to s. 77, while under s. 76 the transfer in favour of the Government would be subject to a trust or public right, under s. 77 it would be free from it if it was transferred to a private party. The first objection has no force, as there are no sections other than ss. 72, 73 and 74 whereunder the Government vests property in a Committee. The second objection also has no merits, for the trust or public right-mentioned in s. 76 does not appear to relate to the purpose for which the property is purchased but to the trust or public right existing over the property so alienated by the Committee. ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... f the legislation was to provide for persons who became customers facilities for doing their own washing, but the scheme provided for washing by the municipality itself and that, therefore, it was ultra vires the statute. In coming to that conclusion the learned Judge, after considering an earlier decision on the subject, applied the following principle to the facts of the case before him : That recognises that in every case it is for a corporation of this kind to show that it has affirmatively an authority to do particular acts; but that in applying that principle, the rule is not to be applied too narrowly, and the corporation is entitled to do not only that which is expressly authorised but that which is reasonably incidental to or consequential upon that which is in terms authorized. The principle so stated is unobjectionable. The correctness of these principles also need not be canvassed, for the construction we have placed on the provisions of the Act does not run counter to any of these principles. We have held that s. 77 confers an express power on the Municipal Committee to sell property subject to the conditions mentioned therein. Therefore, the impugned sales are n ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... mittee, and they seek a writ of quo warranto against the respondents. Section 320 of the new Act provides that any Committee constituted under the repealed Act shall be deemed to have been constituted under the new Act and its members shall continue to hold office till the first meeting of the Committee is called under s. 35 of the new Act. The ten respondents contend that as admittedly the meeting under s. 35 has not been called, their term of office has not yet expired. Now s. 35, so far as is material, provides that the first meeting of the Committee shall be called by the Collector within thirty days of the date of publication of the names of members under s. 32. Section 32 states that the names of members finally elected to any Committee shall be forthwith published in the official Gazette. It is quite clear, therefore, that the Committee mentioned in this section, is a Committee constituted by an election held under the new Act. It would follow that the meeting contemplated in s. 35 is a meeting of a Committee constituted by an election held under the new Act. The provisions of that section put this beyond doubt. In order, therefore, that a meeting of the Committee c ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... contend that the ten respondents' term of office expired in August, 1959, and they are in possession of the office now without any warrant. There is no doubt that the Act raises some difficulty. It was certainly not intended that the members elected to the Committee under the repealed Act should be given a permanent tenure of office nor that there would be no elections under the new Act. Yet such a result would appear to follow if the language used in the new Act is strictly and literally interpreted. It is however well established that Where the language of a statute, in its ordinary meaning and grammatical construction, leads to a manifest contradiction of the apparent purpose of the enactment, or to some inconvenience or absurdity, hardship or in justice, presumably not intended, a construction may be put upon it which modifies the meaning of the words, and even the structure of the sentence. Where the main object and intention of a statute are clear, it must not be reduced to a nullity by the draftsman's unskilfulness or ignorance of the law, except in a case of necessity, or the absolute intractability of the language used. Nevertheless, the courts are very re ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ns can be held ; in regard to such general elections, no difficulty is created by the language of the section. It would be curious if s. 20 also provided for general elections, for then there would be two provisions in the Act authorising general elections other than the first. Then I find hat all the sections referring to general elections refer to such elections being held under s. 16(1) and not under s. 20. Thus s. 31 provides that if at a general election held under s. 16, no member is elected, a fresh election shall be held. It would follow that if in an election under s. 20, assuming that that section authorises an election, no member is elected, no fresh election can be held. There would be no reason to make this distinction between elections held under s. 16 and under s. 20. Again the proviso to s. 17 requires a certain notification to be issued within a prescribed time for holding elections under s. 16(1). If an election can be held under s. 20, no such notification need be issued for there is no provision requiring it. This could not have been intended. For all these reasons it seems to me that s. 20 does not confer any power to hold any election. I have earlier said that ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X ..... ted from the expiry of the term of office of the Committee elected under the Act and in the case of the first general election under the new Act, there is no such Committee. The requirement as to time cannot apply to the first general election. The section has therefore to be read as if there was no such requirement in the case of the first general election. It will have to be read with the addition of the words provided that every general election excepting the first general election shall be held between the words prescribed and within . That would 'carry out the intention of the legislature and do the least violence to the language used. So read, there would be clear power under the Act to hold the first general meeting. There would of course then be no indication as to when this election is to be held but that would only mean that it has to be held within a reasonable time of the commencement of the new Act. The course suggested by me is not without the support of precedents. Thus in Salmon v. Duncombe (1) (1886) 11 App. Cas. 627., the Judicial Committee in construing a statute omitted from it the words as if such natural born subject resided in England b ..... X X X X Extracts X X X X X X X X Extracts X X X X
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