Validity of proceedings

Validity of proceedings. (1) No disqualification of or defect in the election or appointment of any person acting as councillor, or as the president or presiding authority of a general meeting or a chairman or member of a committee appointed under this Act, shall be deemed to vitiate any act or proceeding of the municipal council or of any such committee, as the case may be, in which such person has taken part, whenever the majority who were parties to such act or proceeding, were entitled to act. (2) No resolution of a municipal council or of any committee appointed under this Act shall be deemed invalid on account of any irregularity in the service of notice, upon any councillor or member provided that the proceedings of the municipal council or committee, were not prejudicially affected by such irregularity. (3) Until the contrary is proved every meeting of a municipal council or of a committee appointed under this Act in respect of proceedings whereof a minute has been made and signed in accordance with this Act, shall be deemed to have been duly convened and held and all the members of the meeting shall be deemed to have been duly qualified; and where the proceedings are the proceedings of a committee, such committee shall be deemed to have been duly constituted and to have had the power to deal with the matters referred to in the minute. (4) During any vacancy in a municipal council or committee the continuing councillors or members may act as if no vacancy had occurred. (5) No act done or proceeding taken under this Act shall be questioned on the ground merely of any defect or irregularity not affecting the merits of the case. (a) incur expenditure beyond the said limits,— (i) in the acquisition of land, or (ii) in the construction, maintenance, repair or purchase of works for the purpose of obtaining supply of water required for the inhabitants of the municipal area, or of providing the supply of electrical energy for the use of the inhabitants of the said municipal area or of establishing slaughter houses or places for the disposal of night soil or sewage or carcasses of animals beyond the said limits, or for drainage works or for the purpose of providing mechanically propelled transport facilities for conveyance of the public or for the purpose of setting up of dairies or farms for the supply, distribution and processing of milk or milk products for the benefit of the inhabitants of the municipal area, or for any other purpose calculated to promote the health, safety or convenience of the inhabitants of the said municipal area; or (b) make whether within or beyond the limits of the municipal area a contribution towards expenditure incurred by any other municipal council or a Taluk Panchayat or a Grama Panchayat or cantonment authority or other public institution or person or body of persons for measures promoting the health, education or convenience of the public and calculated to benefit the residents within the limits of the contributing municipal council; or (c) create scholarships tenable outside the limits of the municipal area. (3) Nothing in this section, or in any other provision of this Act, shall be deemed to make it unlawful for a municipal council when with the sanction of the Government it has constructed works beyond the limits of the said municipal area for the supply of water or electrical energy or for drainage as aforesaid,— (a) to supply or extend to, or for the benefit of, any person or buildings or vacant lands in any place whether such place is or is not within the limits of the said municipal area, any quantity of water or electrical energy not required for the purpose of this Act within the said municipal area, of the advantages afforded by the system of such drainage works on such terms and conditions, with regard to payment and to the continuance of such supply or advantages, as shall be settled by agreement between the municipal council and such person or the occupier or owner of such buildings or vacant lands, or (b) to incur any expenditure, on such terms with regard to payment as may be settled as aforesaid, for the construction, maintenance, repair or alteration of any connection pipes or any electric supply lines or other works necessary for the purpose of such supply or for the extension of such advantages.