Conduct physical meeting of standing committee on October 21: Bombay HC to Mumbai civic body

The Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to conduct a physical meeting of its standing committee on October 21,

The Bombay high court (HC) on Tuesday directed the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) to conduct a physical meeting of its standing committee on October 21, after it was informed that an application for the same was pending with the urban development department (UDD).

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The court upheld the contention of two Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) corporators, who petitioned for the standing committee meeting to be physically held as there were 674 items on the agenda to be discussed. The petitioners pointed out that if the meeting is held through video conferencing, the issues would be passed without due deliberation.

The HC held that in the interest of the public, the 27 members of the standing committee along with a dozen officials should attend the physical meeting in the general body hall of the BMC headquarters at Fort while observing Covid-19 protocols.

The division bench of chief justice Dipankar Datta and justice Girish Kulkarni, while hearing the public interest litigation (PIL) filed by Makarand Narvekar, member of BMC’s standing committee and Prabhakar Shinde, BJP group leader in BMC, was informed by advocate Jeet Gandhi that the meeting was being held after almost six months.

Gandhi submitted that as per the agenda of the standing committee issued by the civic authority on October 16, a total of 674 items would be put up for consideration. He said that the petitioners were apprehensive that as the meeting was to be held through video conferencing, there would be no opportunity for them to deliberate on the issues and resolutions would be passed arbitrarily.

However, senior counsel Aspi Chinoy along with advocate Joel Carlos for standing committee chairman Yashwant Jadhav, informed the court that the apprehensions of the petitioner corporators were unfounded as the issues would be taken up serial wise. Chinoy further submitted that as no standing committee meeting was held in the past six months, the list of 674 items was a backlog which was listed in the agenda and in no way meant that all were to be approved and passed on the same day.

He assured the court that the items would be discussed sequentially and items remaining at the end of the day would be taken up in subsequent meetings of the committee.

Senior counsel Anil Sakhare for the BMC informed the bench that it had written to the UDD for permission to conduct a physical meeting on October 14. However, they were yet to receive a response. He added that the meeting could be held with the 27 members of the standing committee and a dozen officials in the general body hall of the civic administration building by observing all Covid-19 protocols, as the hall has a 180-seat capacity.

After being informed by the UDD that they had received the application on Tuesday and would require time to decide on it, the court said that it was passing orders for the physical meeting of the committee to be held in the general body hall. The court further observed, “The BMC is doing so much to control Covid-19. If it does not hold the physical meeting, it will send out a wrong signal to the society that the BMC is hesitant.”

The bench further said that it was taking the submissions of Chinoy as an undertaking and directed the civic corporation to conduct the meeting physically on October 21.

BJP corporators met Maharashtra Governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari to raise the issue of hundreds of civic work proposals being tabled at the standing committee meeting. Vinod Mishra, BJP group leader, said, “He supported our contention, and said that a physical meeting of clearing so many important proposals is important as they impact every Mumbaiites.”