Calcutta High Court on Tuesday directed the chairperson of the Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation to file an affidavit on Wednesday declaring that the process adopted for issuing the notification for a no-confidence motion against mayor Sabyasachi Dutta was just and proper.

In response to an order issued by Justice Samapati Chatterjee on Monday, the chairperson, Krishna Chakrabarty, added herself as a party to a petition by Dutta who had challenged the validity of the notification for the no-trust motion.

The notification was issued by the joint commissioner of the corporation who convened a meeting of councillors on July 18 for moving the no-confidence motion against Dutta.

Six councillors also prayed before the court on Tuesday that they be added as parties to the case. “My clients are among those councillors who had requested the chairperson to call a meeting for moving the no-confidence motion against the mayor. So, the court should hear them before coming to any conclusion,” lawyer Saptangshu Basu said.

The judge, however, asked Basu to file a formal application before the court on Wednesday and then the court would decide whether the councillors would be made parties to the case.

Dutta’s counsel, Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharyya, said he had no objection to Basu’s plea. “But before hearing the parties in detail, the court should issue an interim stay on the notification by the joint commissioner,” Bhattacharyya said.

Additional advocate general Abhratosh Majumdar pleaded with the judge not to issue the interim stay at least till Wednesday.

In another development, the high court on Tuesday partially heard a petition by 18 out of 31 councillors of Naihati municipality challenging the appointment of an administrator at the civic body by the Bengal government.

Advocate general Kishore Dutta said the petition was faulty because instead of challenging the dissolution of the board, the petitioners had challenged the appointment of the administrator. “The Supreme Court had ruled that any subsequent decision of the government cannot be challenged without challenging the original decision,” the advocate general said.

The AG will continue his submission tomorrow.