NEW DELHI: Supreme Court’s repeated disapproval of a colonial-era law that mandated a district magistrate’s wife to be the ex officio president of Zilla Mahila Samiti has forced UP govt to draft a new law removing the anti-democratic provision.The UP govt told a bench of CJI Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi on Tuesday that the bill doing away with the 165-year-old provision had been finalised and would be introduced in assembly soon. The bench remarked that it was high time that the colonial-era mentality of district magistrates being treated like kings was discarded.It directed the UP govt to place the bill on the floor of the House for approval within two months. Once the bill is passed, the bench said, the st-ate govt would have to ensure it gets the governor’s assent and is notified in the gazette to bring the law into force. The order came on a petition filed by Zilla Mahila Samiti, Bulandshahr. After hearing petitioner’s counsel and senior advocate Tapesh Kumar Singh, the bench said the bill proposing a revamp of Societies Registration Act, once passed and in force as law, would govern all such societies with immediate effect. Until the new law is enforced, managing the day-to-day affairs and discharging the statutory duties of Bulandshahr Zilla Mahila Samiti would continue to be the responsibility of the earlier body. During the pendency of the petition, the ex officio president of the samiti had resigned on the grounds that her husband had been transferred out of the district.In its earlier order, SC had said, “The amended provisions will have to ensure that the bylaws/rules or regulations of society will shed the colonial mindset of conferring ex officio positions to the spouse or family members of the state bureaucrats. It is, of course, for the legislature to bring the suitable amendment and introduce such a structure of the governing body of a society or trust, etc, which leans towards democratic values where most of the members are duly elected.”
