The Supreme Court will hear a plea filed by the Aam Aadmi Party challenging the postponement of elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on August 26.
The plea filed by the Arvind Kejriwal-led party argued that all the three municipal corporations in Delhi have been merged into one due to which the election got delayed. The plea also said that postponing the election for delimitation is not right.
Appearing before the bench of Justice A.M. Khanwilkar, Justice Abhay S. Oka, Justice J.B. Pardiwala for the Aam Aadmi Party, Senior Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi said the Court has repeatedly said the constitutional mandate is prior to expiry of the term of the elected councillors. “In any case, it must be done promptly. Delimitation is no excuse.”
Court: Is the other party here?
Singhvi: We have served them dasti, of course. We’ll serve the central agency.
Court lists the matter on 26 August. Issues notice.
Advocate Shadan Farasat requested the bench to post the writ petition along with the contempt plea before the bench headed by Justice Khanwilkar.
On March 9, 2022, the Election Commission announced the schedule of the Delhi civic body polls in April this year but postponed it at the last moment. Following this, the Centre passed a proposal and merged the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi. With this, the South, North, and East MCD will be treated as one Municipal Corporation of the capital.
The Centre also announced Delhi State Election Commissioner Vijay Dev as the chairman of the Delimitation Commission.
Pankaj Kumar Singh, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Urban Development and Randhir Sahai, Additional Commissioner, Municipal Corporation of Delhi will be members of the Commission.