PANAJI
The Bombay High Court at Goa on Monday slammed the Chief Officer of the Sanquelim Municipal Council for obstructing the functioning of the presently elected council allegedly under pressure from the ruling party since the local body is now controlled by councillors owing allegiance to the opposition right in the heart of the Chief Minister’s constituency.
“The Chief Officer must assist the Chairperson and the elected councillors in the discharge of their lawful functions. The Chief Officer is not expected to take any sides or act under dictation while discharging this role. The orders made by him and his unjustified refusal to implement even the resolutions of the Council that were admittedly not stayed belies such assertions and suggests otherwise,” the High Court bench of Justices M S Sonak and M S Jawalkar observed.
Hearing a petition filed by seven ruling councillors of SMC led by Chairperson Raya Parsekar, who alleged that the CO was refusing to implement resolutions passed by the Council as well as not clearing files, the HC pulled up the Chairperson and asked the Secretary (Municipal Administration) to begin counselling the Chief Officer about his powers and not to overreach them.
The High Court observed, “The Secretary (Urban Development) must also consider whether this Chief Officer should be shifted to some other council, having regard to his functioning in the present Council and the affidavit/reply filed by him, making unsubstantiated allegations against the Chairperson and the other councillors.”
In the petition filed before the High Court the councillors alleged that besides not implementing orders passed by the Council, the Chief Officer issued an order requiring all the staff of the SMC to obtain proper noting/consent of his before presenting any file/files to the Chairperson/Vice-Chairperson/Councillor and in case, there is any need to forward any file to any authority/section, the same shall be routed through the Chief Officer.
They alleged that on account of this order, no files can be accessed by the Chairperson or the Councillors and further, the Chief Officer is rarely present at the SMC for the files to be routed through him.
The High Court said the CO had passed some orders without the authority of law to render the smooth functioning of the council difficult. The situation is compounded by the fact that the Chief officer holds other charges and therefore is unavailable on a full-time or even sufficient time basis to attend the council works, the court stated.
“The Chief Officer, in this case, has used extremely strong language in his affidavit… has gone to the extent of alleging that the petitioners, which include the Chairperson and majority of the elected Councillors, are in the habit of making false allegations against the CO’s order. The allegations have been made without any sense of responsibility. Such unsubstantiated allegations are not to be made by government servants against elected representatives unless there is some cogent material to back the same,” the High Court ruled.
