Chennai: The Madras high court has declined to direct the State government to pay salary to mayor and councillors of Chennai corporation.
Closing a petition from advocate M. Purushothaman, a Division Bench comprising Chief Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice R.Mahadevan, however, left it to the State government to examine the issue whether it would like to have a re-look at section 25-A of Chennai City Municipal Corporation Act (which denied salary to mayor and councilors of Chennai corporation).
The Bench said the petitioner in his capacity as voter, seeks to assail the provisions of section 25-A. The petitioner's contention was firstly that the post of Mayor or Deputy Mayor was a Constitutional post. On being asked to substantiate this plea, naturally nothing was shown, as it was not so.
The principal contention of the petitioner was that when there was provision for payment of salaries to elected representatives like MPs, MLAs and other authorities, why should the Mayor, Deputy Mayor or Councillor not receive remuneration?
"The aforesaid is a matter of legislative exercise and we do not see any merit in the challenge or find there is violation of principles of Art. 14 of the Constitution merely because there is no salary provided for Mayor, Deputy Mayor or Councillor. It is for the State government to examine as to whether it would like any change in the legislative enactment. We are thus not inclined to grant the relief as prayed for by the petitioner", the Bench said.
