Incorporation of municipal council

The council constituted under section 7 shall by the name of the municipality, be a body corporate, shall have perpetual succession and a common seal and subject to any restriction or qualification imposed by this or any other enactment, shall be vested with the capacity of suing or being sued in its corporate name, of acquiring, holding and transferring property movable or immovable, of entering into contracts and of doing all things necessary for the purpose of its constitutions. 1 [9. Reservation of seats.- (1) There shall be reservation of seats for the Scheduled Castes in every municipal council and the number of seats so reserved shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of seats to be filled by direct election in that municipal council as the population of the Scheduled castes in the Municipality bears to the total population of that area. The number of such reserved seats shall be determined by the Government by notification published in the Official Gazette.

1. (2) One-third of the total number of seats reserved under sub-section
2. (1) shall be reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes. The section came into force on the 26th day of January 1974 vide Extraordinary Gazette No.11, dated 17th January 1974.
3. (3) One-third (including the number of seats reserved for women belonging to the Scheduled Castes) of the total number of seats to be filed by direct election in every municipal council shall be reserved for women.
4. (4) The offices of chairpersons in the municipal councils shall be reserved for the Scheduled Castes and women: Provided that the number of offices of chairpersons reserved for the Scheduled Castes in the municipal council shall bear, as nearly as may be, the same proportion to the total number of such offices in municipal councils as the population of the Scheduled Castes in all the municipalities, bears to the total population of all the municipalities, the number of such reserved offices being determined by the Government by notification published in the Official Gazette: Provided further that as nearly as may be one-third of the total number of offices of chairpersons in the municipal councils shall be reserved for women: Provided also that while determining the number of reserved seats for women under sub-sections (2), (3) and (4) fraction, if any shall be counted as one.] 1[(5) The allotment of reserved seats under sub-sections (1), (2) and (3) and the allotment of reserved offices of chairpersons under sub-section (4) shall be made by the Election Commission, once in five years, by rotation to different constituencies in a municipal council or to offices of chairpersons of different municipal councils, as the case may be. Such allotment shall be made in accordance with such procedure as may be prescribed and in such manner that a constituency in a municipal council or an office of chairperson of a municipal council is reserved again only after exhausting such reservation in respect of every other constituency or office of chairperson, as the case may be.]
5. (6) The reservation of seats under sub-sections (1) and (2) and the reservation of offices of chairpersons (other than reservation for women) under subsection (4), shall cease to have effect on the expiration of the period specified in article 334 of the Constitution.
6. (7) Nothing contained in this section shall be deemed to prevent the members of Scheduled Castes and women from standing for election to the non– reserved seats and the non-reserved offices of chairpersons in the municipal councils.
7. (8) The Government may prescribe for reservation of seats in any municipality in the municipal councils in favour of backward class of citizens: Provided that nothing shall be deemed to prevent the backward class of citizens from standing for election to the non-reserved seats.] *[10. Duration of municipal councils.- (1) Every municipal council unless sooner dissolved under any law for the time being in force, shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting and no longer: Provided that a municipal council shall be given a reasonable opportunity of being heard before its dissolution.
8. (2) An election to constitute a municipal council shall be completed-
   • (a) before the expiry of its duration specified in subsection (1); and
   • (b) before the expiration of a period of six months from the date of its dissolution: Provided that where the remainder of the period for which the dissolved municipal council would have continued is less than six months, it shall not be necessary to hold any election under this sub-section for constituting the municipal council for such period.
9. (3) A municipal council constituted upon the dissolution of a municipal council before the expiration of its duration shall continue only for the remainder of the period for which the dissolved municipal council would have continued under sub-section (1), had it not been so dissolved.
10. (4) A casual vacancy of a councillor shall be filled, subject to the provisions of sub-section (2), at a casual election as soon as possible.]. **11. Procedure when no councillor is elected.- (1) If at an ordinary or casual election held under section 10 no councillor is elected, a fresh election shall be held on such days as the election authority may fix.
11. (2) If at such fresh election no councillor is elected, the council shall elect a qualified person to fill the vacancy in the manner prescribed.
    • • Substituted by Act 4 of 1994, section 7, with effect from 23-4-1994. ** The section came into force on the 26th day of January, 1974 vide Extraordinary Gazette No.11
12. (3) The term of office of a councillor elected under this section shall expire at the time at which it would have expired if he had been elected at the ordinary or casual election, as the case may be.
    • (b) Chairman

¹ Substituted by Act 4 of 1994, section 6, with effect from 23-4-1994.

¹ Substituted by Act 3 of 1996 section 2, with effect from 30-8-1996.