Advocates:
Advocate Appeared:
For the Appellant :Mr. Gaurav Chopra, Senior Advocate with Mr. C.M.Munjal, Advocate, Mr. Akshat Dalal, Advocate, Ms.Sanjana, Advocate,
For the Respondent:Mr. Ferry Sofat, Addl. Advocate General, Punjab, Mr. D.V.Sharma, Senior Advocate with Mr. Manbir Singh, Advocate, Mr. Shashank Shekhar Sharma, Advocate

JUDGMENT :

Rajesh Bhardwaj, J. -

Prayer in the present petition is for quashing the order dated 30.05.2023 (Annexure P-20) whereby, the petitioner who is the elected President of Municipal Council, Jalalabad has been illegally and arbitrarily removed from the post of President and in complete violation of the provisions of the Punjab Municipal Act, 1911 (for short, 'the Act') as well as the settled law.

2. Adumbrated facts of the case are that the petitioner was firstly elected as Municipal Councilor from Ward No.2 of the Municipal Council, Jalalabad in the month of February, 2021 and thereafter, on 26.04.2021 he was elected as President of Municipal Council, Jalalabad unanimously. A complaint dated 02.06.2022 was filed against the petitioner by respondent No.3 i.e. Jagdeep Kamboj alias Goldy, MLA of Jalalabad Constituency to the Hon'ble Chief Minister. It was alleged in the complaint filed that respectable persons of Vidhan Sabha Constituency, Jalalabad brought to his notice regarding bungling in the development works of the Municipal Council, Jalalabad as basic facilities had not been provided to the general public and request was made to hold an enquiry by the senior officer. On the basis of same, enquiry was conducted through Chief Vigilance Officer and then show cause notice dated 17.10.2022 alongwith the detail of charges was issued to the petitioner for taking action against him under Sections 22 and Section 50 of the Act. Petitioner submitted his reply (Annexure P-3) to the show cause notice issued to him explaining in detail all the allegations made against him and thereafter, he filed supplementary reply (Annexure P4) in addition to the reply already filed. Thereafter, the petitioner was removed from the post of President by the respondent-State vide notification dated 17.02.2023. Aggrieved by the same, the petitioner approached this Court by way of filing CWP-3684-2023, wherein, the Hon'ble Division Bench after hearing both the sides, set aside the notification dated 17.02.2023 vide which the petitioner was removed from the post of President and remanded the case to the competent authority to decide the same afresh after complying with the specific directions given by the Hon'ble Division Bench in the order dated 20.04.2023. Respondent-State after hearing the petitioner again issued impugned notification dated 30.05.2023, whereby, the petitioner again has been removed from the post of President. Hence, aggrieved by the same the petitioner has again approached this Court by way of filing the present petition.

3. Learned Senior Counsel, Shri Gaurav Chopra representing the petitioner has vehemently contended that the petitioner has fallen victim to the political rivalry initiated against him. It is submitted that the petitioner was elected as a Councilor on the Congress ticket and also opposed respondent No.3 tooth and nail in the election of MLA and thus, he earned the wrath of respondent No.3 who started exerting undue pressure on him after having been elected as MLA from Jalalabad Constituency. It is submitted that in order to settle the score with the petitioner, respondent No.3 filed a false and frivolous complaint on the basis of frivolous allegations and thus, a show cause notice dated 17.10.2022 under Sections 22 and 50 of the Act was issued to the petitioner. He has submitted that the petitioner duly replied each and every allegation levelled against him. He has submitted that the allegations against the petitioner are three fold. Firstly that