Supreme Court Seeks J&K Admin's Response On Challenge To Termination Of Dooru-Verinag Municipal Committee's Term

The Supreme Court on Monday (February 5) issued notice on a plea challenging the termination of the term of the President Municipal Committee, Dooru-Verinag, Anantnag District by the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir (“UT”).

A Bench of Justices Surya Kant and K.V. Viswanathan was considering a Special Leave Petition filed by Mohd.Iqbal Ahangar, the former President of the Municipal Committee, against the judgment of the Jammu &Kashmir &Ladakh High Court which affirmed the action of the UT authorities.

While posting the matter next on February 23, the Court allowed the petitioner to discharge the duties of the President Municipal Committee Dooru in the interim.

In the instant case, the controversy revolves around the date of the 'first meeting' of the Municipal Committee. As per Section 14 of the Jammu & Kashmir Municipal Act, 2000 (“Act”) the term for the municipality shall be five (05) years from the date appointed for the First Meeting.

The petitioner contends that the 'first meeting' shall be considered to be conveyed only after the declaration of the results of the election of the President and Vice-President.

Disagreeing with the contention of the Petitioner, the High Court noted that the date for the meeting for the election of a President or Vice-President is also the first meeting of the elected members of the Municipality.

The gist of the dispute is that the Petitioner is the duly elected President of Municipal Committee Dooru-Verinag and the First Meeting was held on 01.05.2019. Under Sections 13 and 14 of the Act, the term of the elected body being five (05) years comes to an end sometime in the year 2024.

The UT had sometime in October 2023 addressed to the Petitioner as well as other Municipal Committee that the term of the President comes to an end on 21.11.2023 being counted from 02.11.2018.

According to the Petitioner, admittedly, the general elections to the Municipal Committee were held in the year 2018, however, owing to security concerns in the region the Petitioner was detained, and the First Meeting of the Municipal Committee was only convened and held on 01.05.2019. Therefore, the period of five years of the term of the office of President Municipal Committee would be counted from the year 2019 and not 2018.

At the outset, when the matter was called on for hearing today, the counsel representing the petitioner contended that the UT has illegally terminated the valid five-year term of the petitioner, as the five-year term would have to come to an end in the year 2024 and not 2023.

The court agreed to issue notice to be served on the UT's counsel to be returnable after two weeks.

Moreover, the court agreed to examine the question of whether the period of detention served by the Petitioner should be counted as a period discharging the duty as part of the tenure or no period.

“In your case it actually happened, after the elections held the very next day the person is detained…if he is not allowed to perform a period during which he is being deprived of performing his duties, whether that period should be treated as no period or should be counted as part of the tenure.”, the court orally observed.

Mr. Soayib Qureshi, Advocate-on-Record represented the Petitioner.

Case Details:

MOHD. IQBAL AHANGAR vs. UNION TERRITORY OF JAMMU AND KASHMIR

SLP(C) No. 002748 - / 2024

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