PANJIM: The High Court of Bombay at Goa on Thursday directed that notices be issued to Corporation of the City of Panaji (CCP), State government and co-opted councillors Kabir Makhija and Kishore Sastry in connection with a petition challenging the appointment of the two nominated councillors at the CCP.
The Division Bench has directed the Respondents to file their replies by 16 while further hearing into the matter has been adjourned to July 19.
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Petitioner Aires Rodrigues in his petition alleged that the appointment of Makhija and Sastry as nominated corporators was in total breach and violation of the CCP Act as both did not meet the requirement for this nomination. The Petitioner further stated that the CCP while proposing to nominate Makhija and Sastry as corporators had falsely stated that they were experts in the field of Engineering and Urban Administration respectively.
Rodrigues has also challenged the validity of Section 9 (1) (B) of the CCP Act which makes a provision to nominate up to five corporators having special knowledge or experience in municipal administration, engineering, architecture, archaeology, heritage etc while drawing the attention of the High Court that this provision was violative of Article 243R of the Constitution of India which enables a non-elected member to be given a representation in a municipality only if he has special knowledge or experience in municipal administration.
