Rajasthan
Rajasthan high court dismisses Somya Gurjar’s petition on her suspension | Jaipur News
JAIPUR: The high court dismissed the petition challenging the suspension of Jaipur-Greater mayor Somya Gurjar on Monday. The court directed the state government to complete the judicial probe ordered against her on the charge of manhandling the Jaipur-Greater commissioner, which led to her suspension, within six months.
The mayor had challenged her suspension under Section 39 of the Rajasthan Municipalities Act, 2009. The court on completion of hearing had reserved the order on June 14. The division bench of justices C K Songara and Pankaj Bhandari said, “We do not find any force in the instant writ petition and the same is dismissed.”
“We are of the considered view that the decision (suspension) has been taken after due deliberation and application of mind and after considering the preliminary enquiry report, the same cannot be said to have been passed arbitrarily,” the order said.
Upholding the suspension order issued by the director local bodies, the court said, “The suspension order cannot be said to be passed in malice to oust the BJP corporator as a BJP corporator has been replaced by a BJP corporator on the post of mayor. On facts also, we do not find any grounds for setting aside the suspension order.”
While upholding the validity of sections 39(1)(d)(ii) and 39 (1)(d)(iii) of the Act of 2009, the court said, “We do not find any ground to set aside the order of suspension passed by the appropriate authority.”
But taking note of the facts and circumstances of the case, “we deem it proper to direct the state government to expedite the judicial enquiry initiated against her and the same be completed as far as possible within a period of six months”.
The incident that led to the suspension was a dispute over the extension of the contract given to BVG company for collecting garbage from the city.
In 2017, the earlier corporation had granted work to BVG India Ltd for door-to-door collection, segregation and transportation of municipal waste.
After the earlier Jaipur municipal council was dissolved, on January 18 this year, the director local bodies informed both the corporations (Jaipur-Heritage and Jaipur-Greater) to enter into supplementary agreements with the company for garbage collection. Due to non-payment dues by the corporation, the company had stopped garbage collection. At the first general board meeting of the newly formed Jaipur-Greater, it was decided to take appropriate legal action against BVG within 30 days and invite fresh tenders for collecting garbage.
In the meanwhile, BVG obtained an interim stay order from high court in its favour on May 6. The mayor called the JMC commissioner for discussing the issue on June 4 and allegedly some untoward incident took place in the meeting room. The commissioner filed a complaint and lodged an FIR and sought action against the councillors.
The government conducted a preliminary inquiry and found the mayor and three councillors guilty and ordered a judicial probe. It suspended the petitioner from the post of mayor, a member of Ward No 87, on June 6 along with three other councillors. Later, the government appointed BJP councillor Sheel Dhabai as interim Mayor.
The mayor had challenged her suspension under Section 39 of the Rajasthan Municipalities Act, 2009. The court on completion of hearing had reserved the order on June 14. The division bench of justices C K Songara and Pankaj Bhandari said, “We do not find any force in the instant writ petition and the same is dismissed.”
“We are of the considered view that the decision (suspension) has been taken after due deliberation and application of mind and after considering the preliminary enquiry report, the same cannot be said to have been passed arbitrarily,” the order said.
Upholding the suspension order issued by the director local bodies, the court said, “The suspension order cannot be said to be passed in malice to oust the BJP corporator as a BJP corporator has been replaced by a BJP corporator on the post of mayor. On facts also, we do not find any grounds for setting aside the suspension order.”
While upholding the validity of sections 39(1)(d)(ii) and 39 (1)(d)(iii) of the Act of 2009, the court said, “We do not find any ground to set aside the order of suspension passed by the appropriate authority.”
But taking note of the facts and circumstances of the case, “we deem it proper to direct the state government to expedite the judicial enquiry initiated against her and the same be completed as far as possible within a period of six months”.
The incident that led to the suspension was a dispute over the extension of the contract given to BVG company for collecting garbage from the city.
In 2017, the earlier corporation had granted work to BVG India Ltd for door-to-door collection, segregation and transportation of municipal waste.
After the earlier Jaipur municipal council was dissolved, on January 18 this year, the director local bodies informed both the corporations (Jaipur-Heritage and Jaipur-Greater) to enter into supplementary agreements with the company for garbage collection. Due to non-payment dues by the corporation, the company had stopped garbage collection. At the first general board meeting of the newly formed Jaipur-Greater, it was decided to take appropriate legal action against BVG within 30 days and invite fresh tenders for collecting garbage.
In the meanwhile, BVG obtained an interim stay order from high court in its favour on May 6. The mayor called the JMC commissioner for discussing the issue on June 4 and allegedly some untoward incident took place in the meeting room. The commissioner filed a complaint and lodged an FIR and sought action against the councillors.
The government conducted a preliminary inquiry and found the mayor and three councillors guilty and ordered a judicial probe. It suspended the petitioner from the post of mayor, a member of Ward No 87, on June 6 along with three other councillors. Later, the government appointed BJP councillor Sheel Dhabai as interim Mayor.
