CUTTACK; The Orissa High Court on Thursday dismissed on grounds of merit chairperson of Phulbani municipality Smitarani Mohanty’s plea seeking intervention against Kandhamal collector’s July 13 notice to all the 13 councillors including her for voting on no confidence motion against her.
Smitarani had challenged the July 13 notice of the collector on the ground that it violated Section 54 (1) (ii) of Orissa Municipal Act which prohibits moving of resolution recording want of confidence in the chairperson more than once during a calendar year.
However, while treating the plea as “bereft of merit”, the division bench of Chief Justice Chakradhari Sharan Singh and Justice Savitri Ratho observed, “There was no illegality in the notice as the collector had issued it on the same resolution of the councillors on the basis of which the first notice was issued on April 15.”
According to the case records, 11 out of 13 councillors of the municipality after passing a resolution proposed a no confidence motion against Smitarani. Pursuant to it, the collector issued notice on April 15, 2024 .
When Smitarani challenged the notice in the high court, a single judge bench issued an interim stay order on it on April 22 and finally quashed the notice on June 28 with a direction to the collector to fix fresh meeting of the council on the motion in accordance with law.