HYDERABAD: The Telangana High Court on Friday dismissed a clutch of 30 petitions filed by chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of various municipalities in the State contesting the initiation of no-confidence motions against them.
Justice CV Bhaskar Reddy, in his orders, said that the Telangana Municipalities Act of 2019 must be interpreted as a whole, rather than through a fragmented approach. He pointed out that Section 37, which pertains to the “motion of no-confidence in chairperson and vice-chairperson”, cannot be considered in isolation from the Act’s other provisions.
With this, the court has cleared the way for no-confidence motions against the chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of the municipalities. Earlier, the chairpersons and vice-chairpersons approached the high court after various councillors moved no-confidence motions against them and submitted the proceedings to the district collectors. They requested the court to instruct the respective collectors not to initiate further action.
The main argument presented by the petitioners was the absence of rules framed under Section 238 in conjunction with Section 37 of the Act to govern the process of no-confidence motions. They contended that without these rules, there were no statutory or legal provisions within the Act governing the removal of chairpersons and vice-chairpersons of municipal councils. Previously, the high court had issued interim stay orders, instructing the district collectors not to proceed with the motions.
Counsel representing the councillors argued that the saving clause of Section 299 of the repealed Telangana Municipal Act of 1965 preserved the rules framed under the previous Act, provided they were not inconsistent with the new Act. They further asserted that the Andhra Pradesh Municipalities Rules of 2008, framed under the repealed Act, had been adopted by the State of Telangana in 2016 and were still in effect. After considering the arguments, the court dismissed the batch of petitions.