This PIL challenged the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation's directive limiting citizen-office hours to 11:00 AM to 1:30 PM. The court held there was no illegality as restrictions ensured staff time for functions and dismissed the petition.
This page shows the compact analysis of this judgement. The full analysis — procedural history, issue-by-issue holdings with ratio and obiter, advocates, and paragraph-level evidence for every claim — is being added to the record in batches and will appear here when this judgement has been through it.
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IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY
CIVIL APPELATE JURISDICTION
PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION NO.55 OF 2014
Sanjay Ramkripal Tiwari ...Petitioner
vs.
State of Maharashtra & Anr....Respondents
Mr.Khush Khandelwal i/b Khandelwal Associates for
the Petitioner
Mr.S.N.Patil, AGP for the respondent No.1
Mr.N.R.Bubna for respondent No.2
CORAM : A.S.OKA, &
A.S.CHANDURKAR, JJ.
DATE : JUNE 10,2014
P.C.:
1The petitioner has purported to file this
petition in public interest for challenging an
action of Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation. The
Commissioner of the said Corporation has published a
notice that citizens can meet the Officers and
staff of the said Corporation on any working day
only between 11.00 a.m to 1.30 p.m.
2The submission of the learned counsel for the
petitioner is that the said direction is illegal and
the Municipal Corporation cannot prevent the entry
of the citizens in the office during the office
hours and the entry cannot be restricted only till
1.30 p.m.
3The stand of the Municipal Corporation as
reflected from the communication dated 15th January
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2014 issued to the petitioner (Exhibit-A to the
petition) is that the said restriction has been
imposed to ensure that the Officers and the members
of the staff of the Corporation get some free time
to deal with the complaints and to discharge their
day to day functions.
4The learned counsel for the Municipal
Corporation states that the restriction is only for
meeting the Officers and members of the staff of the
Corporation. He states that during the office hours
letters and applications submitted by the citizens
will be accepted even if same are tendered after
1.30 p.m but during the office hours. We accept the
said statement. He states that the letters and
applications will be accepted by the Inward Clerks
of the Municipal Corporation.
5we see no illegality in the action of the
Municipal Commissioner when he directed that the
citizens can meet the municipal officials only
between 11.00 a.m to 1.30 p.m so that after 1.30
p.m., the municipal officials will find time to
discharge their day to day functions. Hence, there
is no reason to entertain this PIL.
6Subject to accepting of the aforesaid statement
made by the learned counsel for the Municipal
Corporation, the petition is rejected.
(A.S.CHANDURKAR,J.)
(A.S.OKA,J.)
1 issue framed by the court
Whether the restriction on citizen office hours by the Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation is illegal.
Sanjay Ramkripal Tiwari
State of Maharashtra
A.S.Oka
A.S.Chandurkar
As recorded by the court registry
Litigation brought on behalf of the public interest rather than a personal grievance, relaxing the usual rule of locus standi.
Judgements on the same questions, provisions and authorities, from every court