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Sunil Haribhau Kale v. Avinash Gulabrao Mardikar and others

Civil Appeal · Neutral citation not assigned (Civil Appeal No. 2080 of 2015)Decided 20 Feb 2015
Civil Appeal No. 2080 of 2015
Justice M.Y. Eqbal · Justice Kurian Joseph

Background

After the 2012 Amravati Municipal Corporation elections, 23 (later 26) councillors from several parties formed an aghadi (group) called "Nationalist Congress Party Front" and elected the first respondent as their group leader (Gat Neta), duly registered with the Divisional Commissioner. The appellant's side later sought to challenge or displace this leadership arrangement, and the matter reached the High Court, which ruled in favour of the recognised group leader; the appellant then appealed to the Supreme Court.

Decision Breakdown

The Supreme Court examined the Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act, 1949 and its rules, holding that where a municipal party is formed as an aghadi (group) of multiple smaller parties/independents, the rules require the group's leader to be chosen by the aghadi itself through a democratic process, not imposed unilaterally by one constituent party (even if that party contributed the largest number of members). Since the group leader here had been validly elected by the aghadi's own members through the proper process, and no rule allowed a single constituent party to replace him on its own, the Court agreed with the High Court's view (for some additional reasons of its own) and dismissed the appeal, vacating an earlier interim order, with no order as to costs.

Lesson Learnt

A leader chosen democratically by a coalition/group under election rules cannot be unilaterally replaced by one of the group's constituent parties: any change in leadership must follow the same democratic process by which the leader was originally elected, unless the rules expressly provide otherwise.

Official source (sci.gov.in)View Judgment (PDF)

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