12. [ Duration of municipality, etc. [Section 12 substituted vide Haryana Act No. 3 of 1994.]
(1)Every municipality unless sooner dissolved under any law for the time being in force, shall continue for five years from the date appointed for its first meeting:Provided that a municipality shall be given a reasonable opportunity of being heard before its dissolution :Provided further that all municipalities existing immediately before the commencement of the Constitution (Seventy-fourth Amendment Act, 1992 shall continue till the expiration of their duration unless sooner dissolved by a resolution passed to that effect by the State Legislature.(2)An election to constitute a municipality shall be completed. -(a)before the expiry of its duration specified in sub-section (1);(b)before the expiration of a period of six months from the date of its dissolution:Provided that when the remainder of the period for which the dissolved municipality would have continued is less than six months, it shall not be necessary to hold any election under this section for constituting the municipality for such period:Provided further that the first election to a municipality constituted after the commencement of the Haryana Municipal (Amendment) Act, 1994, may be held within a period of one year of its being notified as a municipality:Provided further that elections to the municipalities where no elected body exists at the time of commencement of this Act may be held within a period of one year.(3)A municipality constituted upon the dissolution of a municipality before the expiration of its duration shall continue only for the remainder of the period for which the dissolved municipality would have continued under sub-section (1) had it not been so dissolved.(4)[ If a municipality is not reconstituted before the expiration of its duration laid down in sub-section (1), it shall be deemed to have been dissolved on the expiry of the said duration and, thereupon, provisions of sub-section (2) of section 254 shall be applicable.]
