The Hindu : New Delhi News : Court asks Govt, election panel to fix MCD poll date

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Thursday, Jan 11, 2007
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Court asks Govt, election panel to fix MCD poll date

Staff Reporter

On a petition by BJP Councillors seeking timely elections

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Wednesday directed the State Election Commission and the Delhi Government to inform it by January 25 when they would hold elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice M. K. Sharma and Justice Sanjiv Khanna issued the direction when counsel for the Delhi Government submitted that his client was in favour of holding the elections on time.

The Bench directed the Government to make all arrangements for holding the elections and inform the Commission about it to enable it to fix a date and inform the Court.

The directions came on a petition by three Bharatiya Janata Party Councillors of the MCD urging the Court to direct the State Election Commission, the Delhi Government and the MCD to hold the elections to the civic body before the end of its term on April 10, 2007.

The Bench also issued notices to the State Government, the Union Government, the MCD and the Election Commission seeking their replies to the petition by January 25, the next date of hearing.

The three Councillors -- Subhash Arya, Vijender Gupta and Arti Mehra-- submitted that that if the Delimitation Committee's recommendation to increase the strength of the civic body from the present 134 seats to 272 was allowed to be implemented, the elections would not be held on time, and that would also amount to violation of the Constitution.

They submitted that the Constitution provides that elections to local bodies across the country must be held before the end of the four-year tenure, and if the MCD did not get a new House before April 10, the Constitutional provision would be violated.

The tenure of a local body is counted from the first sitting of the House, the three petitioners said, adding that after the last elections to the local body in 2003, it held its first sitting on April 10, 2003, therefore, the election process must end before April 10, 2007.

They further said that implementation of the Delimitation Committee's recommendation to double the seats of the civic body would require setting up of another delimitation committee, and that would not take less than four months to complete the process for enhancing the seats.

The Delimitation Committee was set up on July 5, 2005, with the direction to complete the job within four months.

However, its term was extended for another month as it failed to complete the task within the time period given. The petitioners have made the State Election Commission, the Delhi Government, the MCD and the Union Government respondents in the petition. It is likely to come up for hearing in a couple of days.

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