1 IN THE HIGH COURT OF JUDICATURE AT BOMBAY CIVIL APPELLATE JURISDICTION JURISDICTION PUBLIC INTEREST LITIGATION NO. 62 OF 2008 Smt. Rita Subhash Shah ... Petitioner Vs. Mira Bhayandar Municipal Corporation & Ors. Respondents Mr. M.M.Vashi i/b. M.P.Vashi & Associates, Advocates, for the petitioner. Mr. R.S.Apte, Advocate, for respondent No.1. Mr. V.A.Sonpal, A Panel Counsel for respondent Nos. 2 to 4. Mr. R.S.Datar, Advocate, for respondent No.5. CORAM: F.I.REBELLO AND J.H.BHATIA, JJ. DATE : 21st January, 2010. P.C. 1. The petitioner approached this Court contending that the Janata Darbar is held wherein all the officers in the area are called and the expenses incurred are arbitrary and/or illegal and contrary to the various guidelines issued by the State Government. 2. The State of Maharashtra as a matter of policy, appoints Guardian Ministers. An affidavit is filed by Shri Ganesh Ramchandra Naik, the Minister concerned at the relevant time. In para 3 are extracted various clauses of the 2 General Circulars published by the Government of Maharashtra in respect of the work to be done by the Guardian Ministers during their tours in the Districts allotted to them. 3. In our opinion, the practice of appointing Guardian Ministers is a part of our democratic process so that the Ministers who are public servants have close access to the public, so that public grievances can be ventilated and resolved. We, therefore, cannot find fault with holding of Janata Darbars. 4. The petitioner then contends that various officers should not be present for the Janata Darbar as that affects administration. In our opinion, if the grievances are to be redressed and if on a single day, officers are called at a point or place, the citizens’ grievances can be redressed more easily. We can find no fault with that procedure. It is possible that on that day there may be some standstill in the work, but then it is for the administration to look into and resolve the issue. That cannot be done by this Court. 5. The third aspect of the matter is regarding the expenditure which has been incurred by the Corporation in the past. An affidavit is filed by Shri Shivmurthy Satyappa Naik, Municipal Commissioner of the Mira-Bhayander 3 Municipal Corporation wherein a reference is made to the resolution passed by the Standing Committee on 30.7.2009. The Standing Committee has resolved not to incur any expenditure for organising meetings on behalf of the Corporation. The resolution further sets out that only Municipal Commissioner or in his absence Deputy Municipal Commissioner of the Corporation and few concerned officers will attend Janata Darbars. We may add that in such matters, care must be taken to avoid wastage of public funds and the expenses are kept to the minimum. 6. Considering the above, in our opinion, the petitioner’s grievances have been substantially redressed. We, therefore, find no purpose in further proceeding with this petition which is accordingly disposed of. (J.H.BHATIA,J.) (F.I.REBELLO,J.)