MPs, MLAs have right to vote in municipal council meetings: Karnataka High Court

KALABURAGI: In a significant development, a division bench of the high court has ruled that MPs and MLAs have the right to vote in all municipal council meetings, whether special or general.

While setting aside the order of the single bench of the high court dated August 26, which had held that MPs and MLAs have no right to vote in the special meeting of a city municipal council convened for deciding the no confidence motion against the president of the council, a division bench comprising Justice B Sreenivase Gowda and Justice A V Chandrashekhara of Kalaburagi High Court on Thursday said as per the Karnataka Muncipalities Act 1964 “once a person becomes a member of the municipal council , he is a councilor. Of course the mode of appointment, term of office, or rights of each one of the three classes of councilors may be different. But the same cannot give rise to an inference that only persons elected directly as councilors alone would have voting rights and the others are excluded”.

However, the bench said that the Constitution had specifically prohibited only nominated members from exercising their right in the municipal council meetings. Referring to various amendments made to Karnataka Municipalities Act, the division bench pointed out that MPs and MLAs were specifically denied voting right in the municipal councils till 1994.

Mrs Shahajahan Begum had filed a writ petition in the high court in January this year following her removal from the post of president of Basavakalyan municipal council by passing no confidence motion with MPs and MLAs taking part in the voting.