The main legal point established in the judgment is that the resignation of a member of the standing committee takes effect immediately upon tendering, and no further acceptance process is necessary.

JUDGMENT :

S.V. Gangapurwala, J.

1. Rule. Rule made returnable forthwith. With the consent of parties taken up for final hearing.

2. The petitioner seeks a direction that, the respondent No. 4 ceases to be a member of the Standing Committee of the Latur Municipal Corporation (for the sake of brevity hereinafter referred to as “L.M.C.”) with effect from the date of his resignation i. e. 28.05.2019 and/or 20.06.2019 (the date of acceptance of resignation).

3. Shorn off all necessary details, the facts relevant to adjudicate the lis are hereinto spelt out.

The petitioner claims to be the Chairman of the Standing Committee of the L.M.C. The respondent No. 4 is a member of the standing committee of L.M.C. The respondent No. 4 on or about 28.05.2019 tendered his resignation from the post of member of the Standing Committee. On 20th June, 2019, the resignation of the respondent No. 4 was accepted by the erstwhile Mayor. The respondent No. 4 did not attend a single meeting of the standing committee from July 2019 to 21.12.2019. On 11.12.2019 a letter is issued by the respondent No. 4 to the respondent No. 3 that on 28.05.2019, he had tendered his resignation as a member of the standing committee. He did not receive any correspondence thereafter. The corporation did not take any decision about his membership of the standing committee, nor any other candidate is elected in his place as a member of the standing committee and as such his membership is intact and he should be issued with the notices of the standing committee meetings. Pursuant thereto on 20.01.2020, a resolution was passed in the General Body Meeting of the L. M. C. and it was resolved that the respondent No. 4 is subsisting member of the standing committee of L. M. C.

4. Mr. Yadkikar, the learned advocate for the petitioner lucidly canvassed his submissions. The same are as under :

A) The respondent No. 4 tendered his unconditional and unqualified resignation on 20.05.2019 from the post of member of the standing committee on his own volition. The erstwhile Mayor of the L. M. C., Mr. Pawar accepted and acknowledged the resignation of the respondent No. 4 by endorsing “Rajinama Manzur” and further forwarded it to the respondent No. 3 for maintaining the record. The factum of respondent No. 4 tendering the resignation is accepted by the respondent No. 4 and respondent Nos. 1 and 3 in their affidavit.

B) Neither the Maharashtra Municipal Corporation Act, 1949 (for short “Act of 1949”), nor any Rules and regulations governing the membership of standing committee provide for manner of tendering resignation or the authority competent to accept such resignation. The resignation is of unilateral character and it comes into effect on the date of the same being tendered. The learned counsel relies upon the judgment of the apex Court in a case of Moti Ram Vs. Param Dev and others reported in AIR 1993 SC 1662. The learned counsel also relies upon the judgment of the learned Single Judge of this Court in a case of Prakash Mahadeo Khot and others Vs. Maruti Dadu Khot and others reported in 2005(2) All M.R. 775.

C) The resignation has been acted upon by all the parties including the respondent No. 4, hence the respondent No. 4 cannot be allowed to continue as member of the standing committee, unless he is lawfully reelected. The respondent No. 4 did not attend any standing committee meetings between July to December, 2019, nor withdrew his resignation at any point of time. On 11th December, 2019, for the first time, the respondent No. 4 acknowledging his resignation dated 28th May, 2019, wrote to the corporation that he has not received any communication from the corporation regarding acceptance of his resignation. The respondent Nos. 1 and 3 also did not issue notices of meetings of the standing committee to the respondent No. 4 between July to December 2019, which shows that the respondent Nos. 1 and 3 also acted upon the resignation of the respondent No. 4 dated 28th May, 2019. The respondent