ACT 35OF 1989

THE KERALA DISTRICT ADMINISTRATION (AMENDMENT) ACT, 1989^[1]

   An Act to amend the Kerala District Administration Act, 1979.

Preamble.-WHEREAS it is expedient to amend the Kerala District Administration Act, 1979(7 of 1980), for the purposes hereinafter appearing;

            BE it enacted in the Fortieth Year of the Republic of India as follows:-

1.  Short title and commencement.-(1)  This Act may be called the Kerala District Administration (Amendment) Act, 1989.

(2).It shall come into force on such date as the Government may by notification in the Gazette, appoint.

2.Amendment of section 2.-In the Kerala District Administration Act, 1979(7 of 1980), (hereinafter referred to as the principal Act), in section 2,-

           (i) for clause (c ),the following clause shall be substituted, namely:-“(c ) “district” means a revenuedistrict;”;

           (ii)  in clause (f), after the words, “Local Government means”,the words “in any district the district council and the taluk samithis concerned”, shall be inserted;
    
           (iii)in clause (g) the words “including an ex-officio member” shall be omitted;

           (iv) after clause (p), the following clause shall be inserted, namely:-
            “(pp) ‘taluk samithi’ means a taluk samithi constituted under section 128 of the Kerala Panchayat Act, 1960(32 of 1960), inserted in that Act by the Fourth Schedule of this Act.”.

3.Substitution of new section for section 4.-For section 4 of the principal Act, the following section shall be substituted, namely:-

              “4.  Composition of district councils.-Every district council shall consist of such number of members as the Government may, by notification in the Gazette, fix in accordance with the scale of one member for every fifty thousand or part thereof of the population of the district, elected in the manner prescribed:

          Provided that the number of members in every district council shall be not less than twenty or not more than forty and that for arriving the minimum or maximum it shall be lawful to make such alterations as are necessary to the limit of population specified in this section.”.

4.  Amendment of section 5.-In section 5 of the principal Act, in sub-section (2), for the words, figures and brackets “under sub-section (1) of section 4”, the words and figure “under section 4” shall be substituted and after sub-section (4) the following provisos shall be added, namely:-

          “Provided that the seat reserved for a woman belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes under the proviso to sub-section (1) of section 6 shall not be taken into account while determining the number of seats to be reserved for the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes under this section:

            Provided further that reservation for Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes under this section shall be to such seats where the population of such castes or tribes is the largest.”.

5. Substitution of new section for section 6.-For section 6 of the principal Act, the following section shall be substituted, namely:-

            “6.  Reservation of seats for women.-(1)  There shall be reserved in every district council seats for women as have the largest number of women voters and the seats so reserved shall not be less than thirty per cent of the number of members notified under section 4:

            Provided that out of the seats so reserved one seat having the largest number of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes shall be for a women belonging to the Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes:

            Provided further that where seats to which women are eligible for reservation under this section happen to be the same seats where the population of Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes is the largest for the purpose of reservation under section 5, Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes, as the case may be shall be given preference to such seats and instead equal number of other seats where the women voters are the largest next in order shall be reserved for women under this section.

            (2)  Nothing contained in sub-section (1) shall be deemed to prevent women from standing for election to seats not reserved for women or to prevent women belonging to Scheduled Castes or Scheduled Tribes from standing for election to seats reserved for women.”.

6.  Amendment of section 7.-In section 7 of the principal Act, -

           (i)  in clause (b) of sub-section (1), the words “and for women” shall be added at the end;

           (ii)  in clause (c) of sub-section (2), the words “and for women” shall be added at the end;

7.  Amendment of section10.-In section 10 of the principal Act, for sub-section (1), the following sub-section shall be substituted, namely:-

          “(1)  The persons entitled to vote at the election of members shall be the persons registered as voters in the electoral rolls prepared or revised in respect of the Local Governments or the Assembly Constituencies or Parliamentary Constituencies whichever is the latest as on the date of publication of the notice of election.

          Explanation.-Where an election is to be held on the basis of the electoral rolls of the Local Governments, the persons entitled to vote in the Guruvayoor Township area shall be those in the electoral roll prepared or revised in respect of the Assembly Constituency or Parliamentary Constituency of the area whichever is the later as on the date of publication of the notice of election.”.

8.  Amendment of section 12.-In section 12 of the principal Act,-

            (i)  after the words “Local Government”, the words “or any Company where the State or Central Government holds more than fifty per cent of the shares or a Statutory Board or any University in the State”, shall be inserted.
   
             (ii) the proviso shall be omitted.

9.  Omission of section 13.-Section 13 of the principal Act shall be omitted.

10.Amendment of section 14.-In section 14 of the principal Act,-

             “(i)  for clause (k) of sub-section (2), the following shall be substituted, namely:- “(k) is a deaf mute”.

               (ii) after sub-section (2), the following sub-section shall be added, namely:-

             “(3)  Every person convicted of an offence punishable under Chapter IXA of the Indian Penal Code or under any law or rule relating to the infringement of the secrecy of an election shall be disqualified from being elected in any election to which this act applies or from holding the office of member for a period of five years from the date of his conviction or for such shorter period as the court may by order determine:

          Provided that in the case of a person holding the office of member, a disqualification under this sub-section shall not take effect until three months have elapsed from the date of his conviction or if within that period an appeal or application for revision is filed in respect of his conviction, until that appeal or application is disposed of by the court.

          (4)  A person who is subject to any disqualification, other than that relating to age, for being chosen as a member of the Legislative Assembly shall also be disqualified for being elected as a member.”.

11. Amendment of section 16.-In section 16 of the principal Act, sub-section (2) shall be omitted.

12.  Substitution of new section for section 18.-For section 18 of the principal Act, the following section shall be substituted, namely:-

          “18. Previous district council to continue in office.-A district council shall be deemed to be constituted only when the majority of the members are duly elected, and until then the previous district council shall continue in office:
          Provided that the term of office of a district council continuing in office under this section shall not in any case exceed one year from the date of expiration of the period referred to in sub-section (1) of section 16:

13.  Amendment of section 19.-In section 19 of the principal Act, clause (j) shall be omitted.

14. Amendment of section 21.-In sub-section (1) of section 21, the word and figures “section 13” shall be omitted.

15. Amendment of section 22.-In section 22 of the principal Act, for the proviso to sub-section (2), the following proviso shall be substituted, namely:-

   “Provided that a member who was not able to make and subscribe the oath or affirmation under sub-section (2) or a member elected at a bye-election shall make and subscribe such oath or affirmation before the President.”.

16.  Insertion of new section 22A.-After section 22 of the principal Act, the following new section shall be inserted.                  “22A.  Certain persons not eligible to be the President or Vice-President of a district council or Chairman of a Standing Committee.-The President of a Panchayat or the Chairman of a Municipality or the Mayor of Municipal Corporation shall not be eligible to hold the office of President or Vice-President of a district council or the chairman of a Standing Committee thereof.”.

17.  Amendment of section 31.-In section 31 of the principal Act,-

                   (i)  for sub-section (1) the following sub-section shall be substituted, namely:-

                                “(1) The President, Vice-President and Chairman of each of the Standing Committees and the members of the district council shall be paid such fixed monthly allowances as may be prescribed.”:

                   (ii) in sub-section (2), for the words “to a house rent allowance of one hundred and fifty rupees per mensem”, the words “to such house rent allowance as may be prescribed” shall be substituted;

                    (iii) in sub-section (5), for clause (b), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:-

                                “(b) a sitting fee at such rate as may be prescribed for attending the meetings of the district council or any committee thereof.”.

18.  Substitution of new section  for section 32.-For section 32 of the principal Act, the following section shall be substituted, namely:-

                  “32.  Secretary and his functions.-(1)  The Collector of the district shall be the ex-officio Secretary of the district council concerned and its Chief Executive Officer and Government may appoint such number of officers of appropriate rank from Government service as Joint Secretaries for the district council in such manner as may be prescribed to assist the Secretary in the administration of the district council concerned.

(2)The Secretary, shall,-

          (a)attend the meetings of the district council and of the General Standing Committee and Finance Standing Committee and may take part in the discussions there at purely in an advisory capacity, but shall have no right to move any resolution or to vote;

          (b) subject to section 34, attend any meeting of a committee of the district council if required to do so by the person presiding thereon;

          (c) carry into effect the resolutions of the district council;

         (d) control the officers and employees working under the district council subject to the general superintendence and the control of the President and subject to such rules as may be made by the Government; and

          (e) discharge all the duties and exercise all the powers specifically imposed or conferred on the Secretary by or under this Act.

          (3)  The Secretary may, in the case of any standing committee, other than those referred to in clause (a) of sub-section (2), authorize a Joint Secretary to attend the meeting thereof.”.

19.  Omission of section 49.-In the principal Act, section 49 shall be omitted.

20.  Amendment of section 51.- In section 51 of the principal Act, for sub-section (1), the following sub-section shall be substituted, namely:-

          “(1)  Government shall, within six months from the date of the first constitution of district councils and thereafter at the expiration of every five years or at such other times as the Government may consider necessary, by order, constitute a Finance Commission which shall consist of a chairman and two other members.”.

21.  Amendment of section 55.- In section 55 of the principal Act, after sub-section (2), the following sub-section shall be inserted, namely:-

          “(3)  the amounts at the credit of the District Council Fund referred to in sub-section (1) and of the other funds referred to in sub-section (2) shall be kept in the Savings Bank Account in the Government Treasury of the District.”.

22.Amendment of section 57.-In section 57,-

          (a) in sub-section (1), for the word and figures “30th April”, the word and figures “31st January” shall be substituted;

          (b)  in sub-section (2) for the words “first week of June”, the words “first week of March” shall be substituted.

23. Amendment of section 67.- In sub-section (1) of section 67, for the words ”first day of July”, the words first day of April” shall be substituted.

24.  Amendment of section 71.- In section 71 of the principal Act, in sub-section (5),-

          (i) for the words and figures “appointed by the government in the manner specified  in section 18”, the words “appointed by the government by notification in the Gazette” shall be substituted;

          (ii) the proviso shall be omitted.

25.  Substitution of the expression “members” for the expression “elected members”.-In the principal Act, for the expression “elected members” wherever it occurs, the expression “members” shall be substituted.

26.  Amendment of Fourth Schedule.-In the Fourth Schedule to the principal Act relating to the amendments to the Kerala Panchayats Act, 1960(32 of 1960), for clause (9) of section 2 of that Act as substituted by sub-item (4) of item (1), the following clause shall be substituted, namely:-

             (9) “district” means a revenue district;”.