The Madhya Pradesh High Court has stayed a state government notification that empowers district collectors to initiate the process to include or exclude areas from the jurisdiction of urban local bodies.
The high court's directive comes ahead of the local body polls in Congress-ruled Madhya Pradesh.
A division bench of justices S C Sharma and Shailendra Shukla passed the order on a petition filed by local BJP corporator Dilip Sharma.
The notification was published by the urban administration and housing department in the gazette on February 23 under the Madhya Pradesh Nagar Palika Adhiniyam, 1956.
Advocate Piyush Mathur, the petitioner's lawyer, said the notification empowered collectors to publish primary notification on adding or removing areas from the limits of municipal corporations or councils.
"The issuance of notification was completely wrong as according to law, only governor is empowered to publish such initial notifications," he said.
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"The state government cannot issue such notifications without the consent of the governor," Mathur claimed.
The high court also stayed the order of Indore collector issuing a 'notice of intention' to include villages Baank and Nainod in Malharganj tehsil, the lawyer said, adding that further hearing will be held on December 2.