Section 44 · Disqualification of Councillor during his term of office

(1) A Councillor shall be disqualified to hold office as such, if at any time during his term of office, he— (a) is or becomes subject to any of the disqualifications specified in section 16 except the disqualification specified in clause (h) of sub-section (1) of that section; or (b) as a Councillor or as a member of any committee of the Council votes in favour of any matters in which he has directly or indirectly by himself or his partner any such share or interest as is described in clauses (a), (b), (c), (e) and (g) of sub-section (3) of section 16, whatever may be the value of such share or interest or in which he is professionally interested on behalf of a client, principal or other person; or (c) is professionally interested or engaged in any case for or against the Council; or (d) absents himself during six successive months from the meetings of the Council, except with the leave of absence granted by the Council by a resolution on his written application for such leave; 4[or] 5[(e) has constructed or constructs by himself, his spouse or his dependent, any illegal or unauthorised structure violating the provisions of this Act, or the Maharashtra Regional and Town Planning Act, 1966 (Mah. XXXVII of 1966) or the rules or bye-laws framed under the said Acts; or has directly or indirectly been responsible for, or helped in his capacity as such Councillor in, carrying out such illegal or unauthorised construction or has by written communication or physically obstructed or tried to obstruct any Competent Authority from discharging its official duty in demolishing any illegal or unauthorised structure], and he shall be disabled subject to the provisions of sub-section (3) from continuing to be a Councillor and his office shall become vacant: (i) a Councillor shall not be disqualified under clause (c) if he is engaged for the Council without receiving any remuneration therefor or appears and conducts his own case in a court of law or before any authority under this Act against the Council irrespective of whether such a Councillor is a legal practitioner by profession or not; (ii) for the purpose of clause (d) when the Councillor applies for leave, such leave shall be deemed to have been granted unless it is refused within a period of sixty days from the date of his application. (2) When a Councillor whether elected, 1[* *] or nominated incurs any of the disqualifications in sub-section (1), it shall be the duty of the Chief Officer to submit a report to the Collector within one month of his becoming aware of the disqualification through any source whatsoever. (3) In every case the authority to decide whether a vacancy has arisen shall be the Collector. The Collector may give his decision on receipt of the report of the Chief Officer under sub-section (2), or on his own motion or on an application made to him by a voter and such decision shall be communicated to the Councillor concerned, the Chief Officer and the applicant, if any. Until the Collector decides that a vacancy has arisen and such decision is communicated as provided above, the Councillor shall not be deemed to have ceased to hold office. (4) Any person aggrieved by the decision of the Collector may within a period of fifteen days from the date of receipt of the decision of the Collector by him, appeal to the State Government and the orders passed by the State Government shall be final: Provided that, no order shall be passed under sub-section (3) by the Collector or under sub-section (4) by the State Government in appeal, against any Councillor without giving him a reasonable opportunity of being heard. Explanation.— If any elected, 2[* *] or nominated Councillor were subject to any disqualification specified in section 16, at the time of his election, 3[or nomination] and continues to be so disqualified, the disqualification shall, for the purposes of this section, be deemed to have been incurred during the term for which he is elected, 4[* *] or nominated.