The main legal point established in the judgment is the retrospective effect of the Second Amendment Act, clarifying and removing the obvious error in the legislation, and upholding the disqualification provision under Section 13A of the Haryana Municipal Act.

JUDGMENT

R.C. Lahoti, CJI.

Leave granted.

2. Haryana Municipal Act, 1973 (hereinafter, the Principal Act, for short) is a State enactment dealing with local self-government through the municipalities. Chapter III of the said Act deals with composition of municipalities. The Haryana Municipal (Amendment) Act, 1994 (Act No.3 of 1994) inserted Section 13A in Chapter III of the Principal Act which provision reads as under:-

"13A. Disqualification for membership. (1) A person shall be disqualified for being chosen as and for being a member of a municipality -

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(c) if he has more than two living children:

Provided that a person having more than two children on or after the expiry of one year of the commencement of this Act, shall not be deemed to be disqualified".

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3. The Amendment Act received the assent of the Governor of Haryana on the 1st April, 1994 which was published in the Haryana Gazette, (Extraordinary), Legislative Supplement, Part I, dated April 5, 1994 and on that the Amendment Act came into force. The amendment spelled out a disqualification effective from 5.4.1994 on a person for being a member of municipality either by election or by continuing to hold the office even if elected prior to the date of coming into force of the Amendment Act, The substantive provision contained in clause (c) abovesaid spelling out the disqualification is explicit specific. However, the proviso appended to clause (c) turned out to be a trouble-maker on account of its faulty drafting. Anomalous consequences verging on absurdity flew from the proviso. While a person having more than two living children on 5th April, 1994 became disqualified for being a member of municipality on that day and the disqualification continued to operate for a period of one year calculated from 5th April, 1994 yet on the expiry of the period of one year the disqualification ceased to operate. Meaning thereby that the legislative embargo imposed on a person from procreating and giving birth to a third child in the context of holding the office of a member of municipality remained in operation for a period of one year only and thereafter it was lifted. Even those who became disqualified on 5.4.1994, the disqualification ceased to operate and they became qualified once again to contest the election and hold the office of member of a municipality on the expiry of one year from 5.4.1994. Obviously, that is not what the Legislature intended.

4. It took more than six months for the State Legislature to realize its error. The Haryana Municipal (Second Amendment) Act, 1994 (Act No.15 of 1994) was enacted by the Legislature which received the assent of the Governor of Haryana on 3rd October, 1994 published in Haryana Gazette (Extraordinary) dated 4th October, 1994. Section 2 of the Second Amendment reads as under:-

"2. In the proviso to clause (c) of sub-section (1) of section 13A of the Haryana Municipal Act, 1973 (hereinafter called the principal Act), for the word "after", the word "upto" shall be substituted."

5. The Second Amendment brought the text of the relevant par of Section 13A in conformity with the legislative intent which prevailed behind the preceding amendment, that is, the First Amendment.

6. Zile Singh, the appellant was married with one Om Pati in April 1970. The couple had three living children when Om Pati died in April 1991. The appellant then married one Sunita on 20.7.1991. Out of the latter marriage, two children were born to the appellant - a daughter, Puja born in April 1992 and a son Gaurav born on 13.8.1995. The appellant was holding the office of member of Municipality. One Nafe Singh filed a complaint against the appellant bringing it to the notice of the State Government that on a child having been born after 5th April, 1995, i.e., one year after the commencement of the First Amendment Act, the appellant had incurred disqualification for holding the office of member. Clause (f) of sub-section (1) of Section 14 of the Principal Act