Some sort of theatre of the absurd is being enacted in the politically muted Jammu and Kashmir as members of all the parties – the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), Peoples Conference (PC), National Conference (NC), Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) and Congress – besides several independent councillors have joined hands to dismiss the mayor in the Srinagar Municipal Corporation (SMC).

PC’s Junaid Azim Mattu, who had been elected as mayor in the 2018 urban local body elections, would be facing a floor test on Tuesday, 16 June, in a special session of the General Council on a no-confidence motion perceived to be sponsored by the BJP and signed by 43 members of different political parties in a House of 70.

Authoritative sources told that after seeking permission from the Deputy Commissioner of Srinagar for gathering of the 70 councillors, Deputy Mayor Pervez Qadri has called a special session of SMC’s General Council at the Banquet Hall at 11:00 am on Tuesday for putting to test councillor Waheed Dar’s no-confidence motion against the Mayor Junaid Mattu.

The Secretary of SMC has issued a notice to all councillors after Commissioner SMC Gazanfer Ali Mir got signatures and thumb impressions of all the 43 councillors verified as per provisions of the laws governing the corporation.

Mattu had submitted a representation, seeking dismissal of the no-trust motion on the grounds that an identical motion against him had failed on 26 December 2019 and, as such, a second motion could not be entertained under rules within six months or till 26 June 2020.

He had also reportedly submitted that a session of 70 members could not be held currently due to the social distancing restrictions and enforcement of the Section 144 of the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) warranted by the coronavirus pandemic.

We had received two separate no-trust motions, each against mayor Mattu and then deputy mayor Sheikh Imran in December 2019. The motion against deputy mayor was listed for voting under rules at 11:00 am on 26 December and the second motion against Mayor Junaid Mattu at 2:00 pm on the same day. The session began as per schedule at 11:00 am. The motion against deputy mayor passed with a majority of the vote and Pervez Qadri was elected as his successor,” said an official.

“In contravention to rules, the mayor vacated his seat in the same meeting, which had only the agenda of testing the no-trust motion against deputy mayor. He asked the attendees if anyone was supporting the no-confidence motion against the mayor. They remained silent which was no legal substitute to seeking a vote on the motion at its proper time in the afternoon session. It was mentioned that the motion had already been withdrawn at 10:00 am. Under rules, it could have been withdrawn only after 2:00 pm when it would come up for a floor test. No session happened in the afternoon. So it was not recorded as a proceeding on any trust motion,” said the SMC official.