The Calcutta High Court on
Thursday allowed a board of administrators, which was appointed by the West Bengal government, to act as the Kolkata Municipal Corporation's (KMC) caretaker board for a month.
In an interim order, Justice Subrata Talukdar directed that in order to ensure that the functions of the KMC are carried out smoothly during the extraordinary situation of Covid-19, the caretaker board will look after its day-to-day operations for a month.
The government appointed the board since elections could not be held to the KMC owing to the coronavirus outbreak.
The court also directed that the writ petition challenging a notification to appoint city Mayor Firhad Hakim as the chairperson of a board of administrators of Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) will be taken up for hearing again after a month.
The petition claimed that as per the Constitution, no elected member can continue in office for more than the stipulated period of five years and as such, Hakim's appointment is illegal.
The petition by one Sharad Kumar Singh, a resident of the city, claimed that the West Bengal government has on May 6 illegally appointed the members of outgoing mayor-in-council and mayor of KMC as the members and chairperson of the board of administrators of KMC respectively.
Seeking quashing of the notification, the petitioner claimed that there is no provision for appointment of an administrator in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation Act.
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