The French Metropolitan Decree dated 12 March 1880 adopted a six-year term of office for mayors, municipal councillors and commune panchayats.
French Metropolitan Decree (12 March 1880) divided the entire region into 8 communes.
There was magnificent and elegant 19th-century municipality building situated close to the sea on beach road in Pondicherry.
Le Dupleix is in a villa built in the 18th century as the residence of the mayor of Pondicherry.
While in Puducherry Union Territory, the decree of 12 March 1880, which provided for a common structure of municipal administration for urban as well as rural areas, continued to be in force.
As a result, the municipal administration as conceived in the nineteenth century stood eroded, substantially.
All the executive powers of the mayors stood transferred to the commissioners appointed under these acts.
He was conferred the ex officio secretariat status with two deputy directors to deal with "municipal administration" and "rural development" respectively.
Special officers stepped into the shoes of mayors and took charge after the civic bodies, formed in 1968, completed their six-year term in 1974.
The mayors were also relieved of their day-to-day administrative responsibilities, enabling them to be in greater contact with the public.
The municipal council was dissolved on 31 March 1978 and a special officer has been appointed to exercise the powers and to perform the duties conferred and imposed upon the municipal council, including the standing committee and other committees and that of the chairman and vice-chairman and other authorities other than the commissioner.