Delhi Mayor Poll Postponed Yet Again, SC to Hear Matter Over Voting Rights on Friday

GG News Bureau

New Delhi, 13th Feb. The Delhi Mayor election, which was scheduled for Thursday, has been postponed yet again as the Supreme Court will hear the case on Friday.

The hearing on AAP and Shelly Oberoi’s petition, which challenged the Delhi Lieutenant- Governor’s decision to allow nominated members to vote in the elections for mayor and deputy mayor in MCD, was adjourned till Friday.

After being postponed three times, the election for Delhi Mayor was finally scheduled for February 16, but it was once again postponed by the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud presided over the Supreme Court bench.

“Nominated members cannot go for election. The constitutional provision is very clear,” the bench observed.

As the matter was being heard by the Supreme Court on Friday, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, representing the LG’s office, stated that the February 16 election would be postponed to a date after February 17.

On February 8, the Supreme Court asked responses from the LG’s office, pro tem presiding officer Satya Sharma of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD), and others on Oberoi’s petition.

Three attempts to elect the Mayor have failed amid a protracted battle between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the BJP.

VK Saxena, the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, had previously accepted a proposal from Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s party to hold the Mayoral election on February 16.

Due to protests by the BJP and AAP after 10 MCD members nominated by the Lieutenant Governor were allowed to vote, the Mayor could not be elected when the councillors met on January 6 and 24, and February 6.

The Delhi Municipal Corporation Act also says nominated members, or aldermen, cannot vote in house meetings.

The AAP, led by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, has strongly opposed voting rights for aldermen nominated by the Lieutenant Governor, who was appointed by the Centre and faces allegations of furthering the BJP’s agenda by attempting to obstruct the work of the Delhi government. The party claims that these nominated members are likely to vote for the BJP.

The AAP won 134 wards in the MCD elections in December, effectively ending the BJP’s 15-year reign in the civic body. The BJP finished second with 104 wards, while the Congress received nine seats.

The position of Delhi mayor is filled by a five-year rotation, with the first year reserved for women, the second for the open category, the third for the reserved category, and the remaining two for the open category. As a result, Delhi will have a woman mayor this year.

Following the merger of three divisions of the municipal body last year, the city will have one mayor for the first time in ten years.