Which is the first Municipal Corporation in India?

A Municipal Corporation is the highest form of urban local self-government in India — a statutory body created by a legislative Act or Royal Charter to administer a large city, distinct from the smaller municipal boards/committees that governed lesser towns. Colonial India's civic administration developed unevenly across the three Presidency towns before spreading to other cities.

Madras (now Chennai) was granted a Royal Charter by the Governor-in-Council under King James II on 29 September 1688, constituting the Corporation of Madras — the earliest Municipal Corporation established in India, and the second-oldest continuously functioning municipal corporation in the world after the City of London Corporation.

Comparing when each city's Municipal Corporation was actually constituted:

• Madras — Municipal Corporation chartered in 1688 (the earliest of the four).

• Calcutta — a Municipal Corporation followed only under the Calcutta Municipal Act, 1876; the earlier 1726 Mayor's Court was a judicial body, not a municipal corporation.

• Bombay — the Bombay Municipal Corporation was constituted under the Bombay Municipal Corporation Act, 1888.

• Lucknow — its Nagar Nigam was formed only in 1960 under the U.P. Municipal Corporations Act, 1959.

Since Madras's 1688 charter predates the corporations of Calcutta (1876), Bombay (1888), and Lucknow (1960), Madras is the first Municipal Corporation in India.