The Hindu : New Delhi News : Court reserves judgment on MCD elections

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Friday, Feb 09, 2007
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New Delhi

New Delhi

Court reserves judgment on MCD elections

Staff Reporter

Directive to submit details about delimitation of wards

NEW DELHI: The Delhi High Court on Thursday reserved judgment on a public interest litigation seeking directions to the Delhi State Election Commission and the Delhi Government to hold elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) before the end of its term on April 10 this year.

A Division Bench of the Court comprising Justice M. K. Sharma and Justice Sanjiv Khanna reserved the judgment on conclusion of arguments by counsel for the petitioners and the Delhi Government.

Delimitation

The Bench also directed the State Government to submit to the Court all the details about delimitation of MCD wards.

Counsel for the Delhi Government submitted that his client was in favour of holding the elections on time, while the State Election Commission urged the Court to dismiss the petition, submitting that it was "politically motivated''.

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

Constitution

They said 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, 2007, the Constitutional provision would be violated.

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

Recommendation

They said 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 given.

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