HC stays Jhalda civic body no-confidence meet

Kolkata: Calcutta High Court stayed Jhalda municipality’s board meeting scheduled on Monday to consider a no-confidence motion against chairman Suresh Kumar Agarwal, reports Subrata Chattoraj. Justice Amrita Sinha held that the notice was not in conformity with the municipal rules and fixed the meeting date as November 21. Municipality vice-chairman Sudip Karmakar submitted to the court that a chairman is given 15 days to act, failing which the notice is referred to the vice-president, who in turn has 7 days to take action. Three Congress councillors had signed the no-confidence motion on October 13. Resignation of Shila Chatterjee, who was the Jhalda TMC town president, fuelled speculations that the scales might tilt in favour of Congress.