Implied power to cancel a municipal meeting notice before commencement extends to issuing a fresh notice later.

A Mayor's statutory power to convene a municipal meeting was treated as including an implied power to cancel the convening notice before the meeting commenced and issue a fresh notice for a later date. The Court distinguished pre-commencement cancellation from adjournment of a meeting already begun, and held that the principle in Section 21 of the Bombay General Clauses Act applied to the power to fix the day, time and place of the meeting under the municipal scheme. Earlier observations on adjournment were held inapplicable to this situation, so the cancellation power was recognised in relation to an uncommenced meeting.

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Issues: Whether the Mayor, having the statutory power to convene a municipal meeting, also had the implied power to cancel the notice convening that meeting before its commencement and direct that it be held on a later date.

Analysis: The relevant municipal provisions vested the power to fix the day, time and place of meetings in the Mayor, subject to the statutory scheme of the Municipal Corporations Act and the provisions deemed to form part of it under Section 453. The Court distinguished between a meeting already commenced and a meeting that had been convened but had not yet begun. It held that the principle in Section 21 of the Bombay General Clauses Act, 1904 applied to the Mayor's statutory power, so that the power to convene included the implied power to rescind or cancel the notice and issue a fresh notice for a later date. The earlier observations concerning adjournment of an already commenced meeting were treated as inapplicable to a case of pre-commencement cancellation.

Conclusion: The Mayor did have the implied power to cancel the convening notice before the meeting commenced and to arrange for the meeting to be held on another date.

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