Date: 21st July 2026

Update: A special meeting has been scheduled for Thursday at 5pm to elect a mayor for the remainder of the term, which concludes in November.

Cr Singh announced his resignation in a video posted to social media on Tuesday morning. He remains a councillor for the municipality, which covers Melbourne’s outer west.

The controversy began in late March, when it emerged Cr Singh had signed a character reference, in his capacity as a Justice of the Peace, for Kashyap Patel ahead of Patel’s County Court sentencing in 2024. Patel had pleaded guilty to multiple child sex offences and was sentenced to nine months’ imprisonment.

Cr Singh wrote the reference before his election to council and has previously acknowledged the decision showed “very poor judgment.” There is no suggestion he was involved in any offending.

Following the revelation, all ten Wyndham City councillors passed a unanimous vote of no confidence in Cr Singh, though under the Local Government Act 2020 they had no power to remove him from the mayoral role directly. Councillors instead wrote to the Local Government Minister seeking intervention, and the state government subsequently appointed municipal monitors to the council.

Residents also held several protests calling for his resignation, and a petition seeking his removal was lodged with the Victorian Legislative Council.

In his announcement, he suggested he had been held to a different standard than that applied to members of Parliament who had also provided character references

Cr Singh had resisted calls to step down for months before Tuesday’s announcement. The council is yet to announce when a new election for the office of mayor will be held.