Mumbai: The Bombay High Court, recently, warned the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) of interfering into ‘democratic’ processes in Maharashtra. The HC accordingly slammed the BJP for disqualifying four nominated councillors of the Bhiwandi-Nizampur City Municipal Corporation (BNCMC), without assigning a proper reason.
A division bench of Justices Satyaranjan Dharmadhikari and Burgess Colabawalla lost its cool after it learnt that the BJP-led government has disqualified these four councillors at the behest of a BJP councillor. The four councillors had approached the bench challenging the decision of the government to disqualify them, thus, acting on a complaint filed by a BJP councillor.
Taking note of this, Justice Dharmadhikari said, “The impugned order proceeds to state that the nomination of the councillors is suspended, but the government has not recorded any specific reason. To our mind, therefore, neither the order confirms with the provisions nor in the facts and circumstances peculiar to this case, the government could have entertained the complaint and obliged the elected councillor, who is a member of the Bhartiya Janata Party.”
“It is evident that the BJP, together with Shiv Sena party, its ally are the parties in power in the state. The government has passed the orders of disqualification at the instance of a person, who is an elected councillor belonging to the BJP. It is not as if he has no remedy,” Justice Dharmadhikari added.
The judges further said if the BJP councillor had any objections to the nominations then he could have availed of all the legal remedies. “There was no occasion for the government to have intervened in a purely political dispute. The intervention by the government not only contravenes the mandate of the law but also interferes with a democratic process,” the bench said.
“There was no occasion for the government to intervene in such a process after it has run its course completely and only to oblige a political opponent of these nominated councillors. In such circumstances, we are of the firm opinion that the impugned order is ex-facie illegal, arbitrary and deserves to be set aside. It is vitiated by a colourable exercise of power,” Justice Dharmadhikari concluded.
At this, the counsel appearing for the disqualified councillors urged the judges to impose hefty costs on the government. The request was, however, denied, saying, “The observations made by us, ought to serve as a warning to the government and it should refrain from exercising its power of control in such matters.”
