BMC to conduct standing committee via virtual mode

Mumbai, April 15: The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has informed the Bombay High Court that the standing committee meeting will be held online on April 16 at 12 noon.  At the beginning of the meeting it was decided to conduct video conferencing through the interface.  April 15. However, a petition was filed in the High Court against the decision to hold a virtual meet. 

A bench of Justices SC Gupta and Abhay Ahuja heard the petition filed by some corporators through advocate Jeet Gandhi on Thursday. Advocate Gandhi said the corporation had announced on April 12 that it would physically hold a standing committee meeting on April 15.  However, it was announced that the meeting would be held online on April 14. Advocate Gandhi said that 24 hours’ notice was not given to the members of the civic body before announcing the virtual meet and many members who wanted to discuss some agenda in the meeting did not have time to scan the required documents. 

Urges the court to direct the BMC to conduct the meeting physically. BMC's senior counsel Anil Sakre told the high court that the decision to hold the meeting online came after the state government decided to impose strict restrictions on people's movement and assembly to disrupt the Covid-19 network.  Contagious. Even at the online meeting, all procedures will be followed as usual and all agenda items will be called according to the serial number and eligible members will be given the opportunity to vote for or against the agenda items being discussed, said lawyer Sakre.

The court asked BMC if there was anything wrong with rescheduling the meeting to April 16, as doing so would give applicants enough time to scan their records and make arrangements to attend the online meeting. Advocate Sakre received instructions from Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Chahal and other participants.  

The court was told that the civic committee had agreed to reschedule the meeting for April 16 at 12 noon. Approving the statement of the civic body, the high court directed to ensure that the applicants were given an opportunity to vote as per the rules of the civic body and that they were not silenced at the meeting.