MUMBAI, July 21: Konkan Divisional Commissioner Sharwaree Gokhale has dismissed Congress petition against the 14 corporators who broke ranks to join National Congress Party (NCP) and ruled that they form more than one-third to stand in contention.An elated Subhash Mayekar, president of the NCP in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), said his group would muster the required numbers to form the opposition in the BMC. ``Seven more corporators have expressed their wish to join us. We need just four more,'' he told reporters. However, he refused to name the seven corporators.However, Congress corporator Ravindra Pawar informed that the decision would be challenged in the Bombay High Court. ``At this rate no political party will have control over its members. The Congress High Command headed by MP Murli Deora will challenge this order,'' he added.On May 25 this year the Congress had expelled five corporators. On June 2, 14 Congress corporators had defected to the NCP. The rebel group, whichnumbered more than one-third of the elected number of Congress corporators at 51 besides a nominate member, staked a claim to form a separate party.Congress leader Kisan Jadhav had dashed off a letter to Sharwaree Gokhale seeking disqualification of the 14 defectors under the Anti-Defection Act urging her not to consider the five expelled corporators. He claimed that since the Congress was reduced to only 47 members in the BMC and NCP had not garnered the required one-third number at 16 for a legal split.On June 4, 1999 Jadhav filed a petition seeking disqualification of the 14 corporators under the provisions and rules of the Maharashtra Local Authority Members' Disqualification Act 1986 since the number was not sufficient to cause a legal split. "They (the rebel group) deliberately and wilfully included the names and signatures of the five expelled municipal councillors who were no longer the members of the Congress Party.'' Congress advocate Marzaban Patrawala urged that the five expelled members bedeemed "unattached members". Having not protested their expulsion in spite of being intimated by registered post, they have obviously accepted that they do not belong to the Congress Party, he contended.While NCP's counsel Ramesh Soni claimed that the five members have voluntarily given up their Congress membership to form the new party. By joining the group of 19, they have caused a legal split in the original Congress. He held that the Supreme Court has held expulsion an ``intra-party'' matter and it bore no significance in this case.Though the 19 have voluntarily given up the Congress, they are saved from disqualification by the provisions of Section 4 of the Act, since they are more than one-third of the total members. The Act recognises ``fronts'' and ``aghadis'', he added.Gokhale accepted that the requisite one-third have voluntarily given up their membership and section 4 (2) of the Act has specifically provided for a member "voluntarily" giving up membership only once. In her order she ruledthat the five expelled members are "deemed members" and even the Congress does not deny they joined the 14 others. Admitting the formation of the NCP by the group of 19 on June 2, 1999 and ruling that there are no grounds to disqualify the 14, Gokhale dismissed the Congress petition.
