Section 71 in The Maharashtra Municipal Corporations Act, 1949
71. Corporation may require Commissioner to produce documents and furnish returns, reports, etc. - (1) The Corporation may at any time require the Commissioner-
(a)to produce any record, correspondence, plan or other document which is in his possession or under his control as Commissioner or which is recorded or filed in his office or in the office of any municipal officer or servant subordinate to him;(b)to furnish any return, plan, estimate, statement, account or statistics concerning or connected with any matter appertaining to the administration of this Act or the municipal Government of the City;(c)to furnish a report by himself or to obtain from any officer subordinate to him and furnish, with his own remarks thereon, a report, upon any subject concerning or connected with the administration of this Act or the municipal Government of the City.(2)Except as is hereinafter provided, every such requisition shall be complied with by the Commissioner without unreasonable delay; and it shall be incumbent on every municipal officer and servant to obey any order made by the Commissioner in pursuance of any such requisition:Provided that if, on such requisition as aforesaid being made, the Commissioner shall declare that immediate compliance therewith would be prejudicial to the interests of the Corporation or of the public, it shall be lawful for him to defer such compliance until a time not later than the second ordinary meeting of the Corporation after he shall have declared as aforesaid.(3)If at such meeting, or any meeting subsequent thereto, the Corporation shall repeat the requisition, and it shall then still appear to the Commissioner inexpedient to comply therewith, he shall make a declaration to that effect, whereon it shall be lawful for the Corporation to elect one councillor who, with the Mayor and the Chairman of the Standing Committee or, if the Mayor is also Chairman of the Standing Committee, with the Mayor and one Member of its own body elected by the Standing Committee shall form a Committee who shall engage to keep secret save as hereinafter provided, the existence and purport of such documents and matters as may be disclosed to them; and to whom the Commissioner shall be bound to make known and to disclose all writings and matters within his knowledge, under his control or available to him, and embraced within the requisition.(4)The said committee having taken cognizance of the information, writings and matters so laid before them shall determine, by a majority in case of difference, whether or not the whole or any part, and which part, if any, of such matters ought to be disclosed to the Corporation or kept secret for a defined time. Such decision of the committee shall be conclusive and shall be reported to the Corporation at the next ordinary meeting thereof, where also the Commissioner shall be bound to produce documents and to make any report or statement requisite to give effect to the decision of the committee when called on to do so by the Corporation.(5)In their application to matters relating to the Transport Undertaking, the provisions of sub-sections (1) to (4) shall have effect as if for the word "Commissioner" the word "Transport Manager" and for the words "Standing Committee" the words "Transport Committee" had been substituted.
