HC seizes Lucknow mayor's administrative, financial powers till she administers oath to corporator

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday seized the administrative and financial powers of the Lucknow mayor till she administers oath to corporator Lalit Kishore Tiwari.

The Lucknow bench of the court passed the direction in a matter related to ward number 73 in the city's Faizullaganj area, where even five months after the election tribunal declared Tiwari elected as the corporator, he is yet to be administered the oath.

The court ordered that until the corporator declared elected by the tribunal is administered the oath, the mayor's financial and administrative powers shall remain suspended.

The order was passed by a bench of Justices Alok Mathur and S Q H Rizvi.

The court had, on May 13, again taken a stern view of the failure to administer oath to Tiwari.

Exemption from appearing before the court in person was sought by the mayor and the district magistrate on May 13. The court had then directed that the oath be administered within a week, failing which the mayor, the DM and the municipal commissioner shall personally appear before it on the next date of hearing on May 21.

The matter has now been listed for further hearing on May 29.

The order came on a petition filed by Lalit Tiwari alias Lalit Kishore Tiwari, who is also an advocate of the high court and presently serves as general secretary of the Oudh Bar Association.

Former BJP corporator Pradeep Kumar Shukla had challenged the high court's order before the Supreme Court through a special leave petition. However, the plea was dismissed on May 20 after his counsel sought permission to withdraw it.

During Wednesday's hearing, the bench asked Additional Advocate General Anuj Kudeshiya, appearing for the state government and the district magistrate, and advocate Shailendra Singh Chauhan, representing the mayor and the municipal commissioner, whether the petitioner had been administered oath.

On being informed that this had not been done, the bench expressed strong displeasure and made sharp observations against the mayor before ordering freezing of her financial and administrative powers.

While the district magistrate and the municipal commissioner were present in court in compliance with its earlier directions, the mayor remained absent.

In the Ward Number 73 Faizullaganj election, BJP candidate Pradeep Kumar Shukla had secured 4,972 votes, while SP candidate Lalit Tiwari got 3,298 votes.

In its order dated December 19, the election tribunal held that Shukla had failed to furnish mandatory information in the election papers, which amounted to misconduct, rendering his election liable to be set aside.

(This story has not been edited by Devdiscourse staff and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)