Lucknow, May 13 The Allahabad High Court on Wednesday yet again took a stern view of the failure to administer oath to Lalit Kishore Tiwari, who was declared elected as the corporator from ward number 73 at Lucknow's Faizullaganj by an election tribunal nearly five months ago.
As exemption was sought for the mayor and the district magistrate on Wednesday. The Lucknow bench of the court 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 order was passed by a bench of Justices Alok Mathur and Amitabh Kumar Rai while hearing a petition filed by Tiwari.
On May 11, the court had said if the oath was not administered by Wednesday, the mayor, the DM and the municipal commissioner would have to appear before it and explain the delay.
During Wednesday's hearing, an exemption application was filed on behalf of the mayor, while the DM sought exemption citing leave.
The municipal commissioner, however, appeared before the court.
Additional Advocate General Anuj Kudesia appeared in the court on behalf of the Uttar Pradesh government, while advocate S S Chauhan represented the mayor and the municipal commissioner.
However, they failed to provide any convincing justification for not complying with the election tribunal's order.
Expressing displeasure, the court reiterated that the newly-elected corporator must be administered oath in compliance with the tribunal's order, failing which the officials responsible for the delay would have to personally appear before it and submit their explanation.
