List of mayors of Chennai

The city of Chennai in Tamil Nadu, India is administered by the Corporation of Chennai headed by a Mayor. The Mayor is the first citizen of the city. The person is the chief of the Chennai Municipal Corporation. As of 2012, Saidai Sa. Duraisamy is the mayor of Chennai.[1] The Chennai Municipal Corporation has a history of 323 years and the Office of Mayor was formed in 1933.[2] The corporation has been served by 48 different mayors as of 2012.[2]

The city is divided into 200 wards, each of them headed by a councilors who work under the Mayor.[2] In addition to the 200 councilors, there are Deputy Commissioners and Heads of various departments and 15 Zonal officers.[2]

First mayoralty

The Corporation of Madras, the second oldest in the British Empire and the first outside the United Kingdom, was inaugurated on 29 September 1688 based on a Charter issued by James II, King of England. As per the provisions of the charter, Nathaniel Higginson, a member of the Fort St George Council, was appointed first mayor of the city. Higginson resigned after six months and was succeeded by John Littleton. Interrupted between 1746 and 1753 by the brief French occupation of Madras, the post of mayor survived with minor amendments till 1798.

The mayoralty of Madras was amended by the Charter of George I of 1727, Charter II of 1753 and the Company's Charter of 1787. Elections to the office were held annually - from 1688 to 1726, the appointment was made on the 29th of September, from 1727 to 1753, on the 20th of December and from 1753 to 1798, on the first Tuesday of every December. The post of mayor was abolished in 1798 when the Mayor's Court was absorbed into the Recorder's Court and was revived only in 1933.

# Name Took Office Left Office Term[nb 1] Source
1 Nathaniel Higginson 29 September 1688 March 1689 1 [3]
2 John Littleton March–April 1689 1690 1 [3]
3 Thomas Wavell 1690 July 1691 1 [3]
4 William Fraser July 1691 September 1691 1 [3]
5 William Fraser September 1691 September 1692 2 [3]
6 John Styleman September 1692 September 1693 1 [3]
7 John Styleman September 1693 September 1694 2 [3]
8 John Styleman September 1694 September 1695 3 [3]
9 Thomas Wright September 1695 September 1696 1 [3]
10 Thomas Wright September 1696 September 1697 2 [3]
11 Nathaniel Stone September 1697 September 1698 1 [3]
12 Daniel Chardin September 1698 September 1707 [3]
Jeremiah Harrison September 1707 September 1709 [3]
Robert Raworth September 1709 September 1711 [3]
William Jennings September 1711 September 1713 [3]
Bernard Benyon 1713 1715 [3]
Thomas Cooke 1715 1717 [3]
John Legg 1717 1718 [3]
Richard Horden 1718 1720 [3]
Richard Benyon 1720 1721 [3]
Joshua Draper 1721 1722 [3]
Catesby Oadham 1721 1723 [3]
George Sitwell 1722 1724 [3]
James Hubard 1724 1725 [3]
Francis Rous 1725 1727 [3]
Captain John Powney 17 August 1727 20 December 1727 [3]
Francis Rous 20 December 1727 20 December 1730 [3]
Thomas Weston 20 December 1730 20 December 1731 [3]
William Monson 20 December 1731 20 December 1732 [3]
John Bulkley 1732 1732 [3]
Paul Foxley 1732 1733 [3]
Samuel Parkes 1733 1734 [3]
Hugh Naish 1734 1735 [3]
John Saunders 1735 1736 [3]
Holland Goddard 1736 1737 [3]
Captain Rawson Hart 1737 1738 [3]
Edward Fouke 1738 1739 [3]
Samuel Harrison 1739 1740 [3]
Captain Timothy Tullie 1740 1741 [3]
Sidney Foxall 1741 1742 [3]
Cornelius Goodwin 1742 1743 [3]
Henry Powney 1743 1744 [3]
Samuel Greenhaugh 1744 1745 [3]
Sidney Foxall 1745 1746 [3]
Joseph Fouke 1746 September 1746
Mayoralty suspended due to French occupation of Madras (1746-1753)
Cornelius Goodwin 1753 1754 [3]
William Percival 1753 1754 [3]
Andrew Munro December 1753 1755 [3]
John Walsh 1755 1756 [3]
George Mackay 1756 1757 [3]
Andrew Ross 1757 1758 [3]
Samuel Ardley 1758 1759 [3]
Claud Russell 1759 1760 [3]
Francis Taylor 1760 1761 [3]
Peter Mariette 1761 1762 [3]
John Lewin Smith July 1762 December 1762 [3]
Peter Mariette December 1762 1763 2 [3]
John Debonnaire 1763 1764 [3]
Thomas Powney 1764 1765 [3]
Captain George Baker 1765 1765 [3]
Claud Russell 1765 1766 [3]
Edward Raddon 1766 1767 [3]

Presidents

Between 1793 and 1856, municipal administration was in the control of Justices of Peace who also had judicial powers in the city. In 1856, the positions were abolished as per the Madras City Municipal Act XIV of 1856. The judges were replaced with three Municipal Commissioners from the civil service. The commissioners collected municipal taxes and enacted laws for the conservancy and improvement of the city. However, the system failed due to lack of financial accountability and the Municipal Corporation was revived in 1860 by the efforts of Sir Charles Trevelyan, Governor of Madras.

From 1886 onwards, a President was appointed to head the corporation and perform the duties of a mayor. The first President of the Corporation was Lieutenant-Colonel G. M. J. Moore, who was then serving as Military Secretary to the Governor of Madras. Presidents were generally appointed for a four-year term but this was reduced to one in 1910. Civil servant T. Raghavaiah was the first Indian to act as President of the Madras Corporation. The first to be appointed as full-time President was T. Vijayaraghavacharya in 1916. P. Theagaraya Chetty of the Justice Party, appointed in 1919, was the first to represent a political party.

# Name Took Office Left Office Term[nb 1]
1 G. M. J. Moore 1886 1902 1
2 S. D. Pears 1902 1906 1
3 E. S. Lloyd 1906 1910 1
4 N. MacMichael (acting) 1910 1910 1
5 P. L. Moore 1910 1911 1
6 T. Raghavaiah (acting) 1911 1911 1
7 P. L. Moore 1911 1913 2
8 A. Y. G. Campbell (acting) 1913 1913 1
9 P. L. Moore 1913 1914 3
10 E. S. Lloyd 1914 1914 2
11 J. C. Molony 1914 1916 1
12 T. Vijayaraghavacharya 1916 1916 1
13 J. C. Molony 1916 1917 2
14 H. H. Burkitt 1917 1918 1
15 J. C. Molony 1918 1919 3
16 Muhammad Bazullah 1919 1919 1
17 P. Theagaraya Chetty 1919 1923 1
18 V. Thirumalai Pillai 1923 1924 1
19 Mohammad Usman 1924 1925 1
20 O. Thanikachalam Chetti 1925 1925 1
21 Sami Venkatachalam Chetty 1925 1926 1
22 G. N. Chetty 1926 1928 1
23 Arcot Ramaswamy Mudaliar 1928 1930 1
24 P. T. Kumarasamy Chetty 1930 1931 1
25 T. S. Ramaswamy Iyer 1931 1932 1
26 M. A. Muthiah Chettiar 1932 1933 1

Mayors

# Name Took Office Left Office Term[nb 1]
1 M. A. Muthiah Chettiar 8 March 1933 7 November 1933 1
2 W. W. Ladden 1933 1934 1
3 M. A. Muthiah Chettiar 1934 1935 2
4 Abdul Hameed Khan 1935 1936 1
5 K. Sriramulu Naidu 1936 1937 1
6 J. Shivashanmugam Pillai 1937 1938 1
7 K. Venkataswamy Naidu 1938 1939 1
8 S. Satyamurti 1939 1940 1
9 C. Basudev May 1940 May 1941 1
10 G. Janakiram Chetty May 1941 November 1941 1
11 V. Chakkarai Chettiar 1941 1942 1
12 C. Tadulinga Mudaliar 1942 1943 1
13 Syed Niamatullah 1943 1944 1
14 M. Radhakrishna Pillai 1944 1945 1
15 N. Sivaraj 1945 1946 1
16 T. Sundara Rao Naidu 1946 1947 1
17 U. Krishna Rao 1947 1948 1
18 S. Ramaswamy Naidu 1948 1949 1
19 P. V. Cherian 1949 1950 1
20 R. Ramanathan Chettiar 1950 1951 1
21 C. H. Sibghatullah 1951 1952 1
22 T. Chengalvorayan 1952 1953 1
23 M. A. Chidambaram 1953 1954 1
V. R. Ramanatha Iyer 1955 1956 1
K. N. Srinivasan 1956 1957 1
Tara Cherian December 1957 November 1958 1
24 K. Kamalakannan November 1958 April 1959 1
A. P. Arasu April 1959 December 1959 1
25 M. S. Abdul Khader 1959 1960 1
26 G. Kuchelar 1961 1963 1
27 R. Sivasankar Mehta November 1963 March 1964 1
28 S. Krishnamurthy 1964 1965 1
29 C. Chitti Babu 1965 1966
30 Era Sambandham 1966 1967
31 Habibullah Baig 1967 1968 1
32 Velur D. Narayanan 1968 1969 1
33 V. Balasundaram 1969 1970 1
34 S. A. Ganesan 1970 1971
35 Kamakshi Jayaraman 1971 1972
36 R. Arumugam 1972 1973
Corporation suspended
37 M. K. Stalin 1996 2002
38 M. Subramaniam 2002 2011
39 Saidai Sa. Duraisamy 2011 Incumbent

Footnotes

  1. 1 2 3 The ordinal number of the term being served by the person specified in the row in the corresponding period

Notes

References

External links

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