THE KERALA MUNICIPALITY ACT, 1994* - nrcddp

554. Prohibition of obstruction of municipal authorities, employees andcontractors.— No person shall obstruct or molest the Council, the Chairperson, any Councillor, the Secretary orany person employed by the Municipality or any person with whom a contract has been entered into on behalf ofthe Municipality in the performance of their duty or of anything which they are empowered or required to do,under this Act or of any rule, bye-law, regulation or order made thereunder.555. Prohibition of removal of mark.— No person shall remove any mark set up forthe purpose of indicating any level or direction incidental to the execution of any work authorisedby this Act or any rule, bye-law or order made thereunder.74 [556. Prohibition against removal or obliteration of notice.— No person shall, withoutauthority in that behalf, remove, destroy, deface or otherwise obliterate a notice exhibited in a public place,worksite or any other place under the authority of the Municipality.]557. Prohibition of unauthorised dealings with public place or materials.— Noperson shall, without authority in that behalf, remove earth, sand or other material from or deposit any matterin or make any encroachment on any land vested in the Municipality, or river, estuary, canal, backwater orwater course (not being private property) or in any way obstruct the same.558. Recovery of administration cost for making frivolous complaint etc.— Where,upon such enquiry or otherwise, the Secretary is satisfied that any complaint filed against anyperson acting under this Act is frivolous or vexatious or unfounded or without bona fides theSecretary may direct the person making the complaint to pay the reasonable cost incurred by theMunicipality in pursuing action on the complaint and such cost shall be recoverable from suchperson as if it were an arrear of property tax under this Act:Provided that before issuing a direction to pay the cost, the person concerned shall be given anopportunity of showing cause against the proposed action.559. Offences by companies.— (1) Where the person committing any offence underthis Act is a company, the company as well as every person who is in charge of and responsibleto the company for the conduct of its business at the time of the commission of the offence shallbe deemed to be guilty of the offence and shall be liable to be proceeded against and punishedaccordingly:Provided that nothing contained in this sub-section shall render any such person liable to anypunishment, if he proves that the offence was committed without his knowledge, or that he exercisedall due diligence to prevent the commission of such offence.(2) Notwithstanding anything contained in sub-section (1), where any offence under this Acthas been committed by a company, and it is proved that the offence has been committed with the consentor connivance of, or that the commission of the offence is attributable to any neglect on the part of anyDirector, Manager, Secretary or other officer of the company, such Director, Manager, Secretary orother officer shall be deemed to be guilty of that offence and shall be liable to be proceeded againstand punished accordingly,Explanation.—For the purpose of this section-(a) 'Company' means any body corporate and includes a firm or other organisation orassociation of persons or a Co-operative Society;(b) Director in relation to a firm, means a partner in the firm.560. Special provisions in the case of newly constituted Municipality.— 75 [(1)Notwithstanding anything contained in this Act where a Municipality is constituted for the first74. Section 556 substituted by Act 14 of 1999, w.e.f. 24-3-199975. Sub-section (1) substituted by Act 14 of 1999, w.e.f. 24-3-1999.