Imphal, September 06: The Gauhati High Court, Imphal bench, today asked the seven councilors of Mayang Imphal Municipal Council, who had earlier sought to vote out the council chairperson, to submit a fresh requisition along with the earlier one before the deputy commissioner of Imphal West district for consideration of a no-confidence motion against him.

The court has also directed the DC to issue a notification two days after getting those requisitions for convening a special meeting for consideration of the no-confidence motion.

The meeting is to be convened not later than 10 days from the date of notification.

Justice H Kaminikumar Singh of Imphal bench passed the order in order to uphold democracy in the council, on a joint petition filed by seven councilors of the council.

The petition appeared after the state vigilance police established that the council chairpersons, N Nilamani Singh, misappropriated a sum of Rs 1,36,084 out of an amount of Rs 1,70,705 released for Manipur urban development scheme and Nilamani and his two associates were arrested by the vigilance police.

The councilors submitted a requisition to the executive officer for convening a special meeting to consider the no-confidence motion against the chairperson and vice-chairperson.

The councilors charged the chairperson and his associates of public breach of trust.

According to the Municipal Act, the EO convened a special meeting on August 27.Seven councilors had accepted the notice for the meeting while six councilors had turned it down.

The EO also served the notification dated August 14 for the meeting through AIR and local dailies.

However, the chairpersons challenged the notification at the principal seat of the High Court on the ground that the EO had been suspended by an order dated August 8.The Court thus suspended the notification of EO.

The seven councilors came to know about the suspension of the EO from the notice served by the court.

Later they submitted a joint application to the concerned authority of MAHUD stating that in the ninth sitting of the council, they were not informed of the step to be taken against the EO.

They also asked the government to intimate the order giving sanction to suspend the EO.

Comment