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Delhi LG to decide date, interim chair for first meeting of newly elected House
An official from municipal secretariat said that typically it takes 10-15 days for holding the first house after getting a nod from LG office
The MCD elections are over but there is no clarity when the newly elected councillors will convene for the first House meeting and new members will take oath, senior officials aware of the proceedings said on Thursday, a day after election results were announced.
According to the officials, Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena will decide the date for the House to convene. The tenure of the newly elected councillors and the House will begin from the day of the first meeting, and not the day when the elections got over.
To be sure, the state election commission is yet to announce closure of the poll process with the model code of conduct being in force in Delhi.
Citing the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act (1957) that governs the MCD, the officials said that usually the newly elected House is convened in the new financial year in April. However, they added, that due to “the unusual circumstances” arising out of the unification of the three civic bodies and the subsequent delimitation of municipal wards, the elections were delayed till December this year.
A senior municipal official associated with the process said on Thursday that the notification from the state election commission regarding the election of new set of councillors has not been issued. “As soon as the notification is sent, we will write to the Lieutenant Governor’s office to fix a date and time, as well as appoint a person to chair the first meeting of the House. During this meeting, the new councillors will be administered the oath of office, and the elections for the Mayor, deputy mayor and six members of the Standing Committee will be held,” said the official.
A second senior municipal official who is aware of the matter said that the need for “a clarification” arose because the annual tenures of the Mayor and other senior corporation functionaries starts in April. “If the new Mayor, deputy mayor and members of other committees are appointed now, it is not clear if their tenures will last till April, or if they continue for 15 months. Since there is confusion regarding this issue, the Union ministry of home affairs is likely to issue a clarification in this regard. A provision for this was made in the amended DMC Act, 2022, which says that in case of any difficulty in giving effect to the new law, the Central government may make provisions for removing the difficulty for a period of two years,” the second official stated.
There is a precedent in this regard, the official added. “In 1997, the councillors were elected in February but it was decided to hold the oath taking after two months. The house was constituted in April 1997, and the five-year term was began that day. If the House is organized in December 2022 or April 2023, that point will become the initiating point for counting the five-year term tenure,” the official quoted above said. Under the prevailing system, the Special Officer represents the power of elected wing under transition phase and the SO will continue to hold these powers till the first meeting of councilors is held.
Unlike the assembly elections, where the largest party or the party with majority of legislative assembly member lay their claim for forming a government, the municipal corporation follows a completely different model. The entire set of elected councilors are administered oaths in the first house and then they elect all the prominent municipal functionaries through a secret ballot system from within the deliberative body to run the affairs of the civic body.
An official from municipal secretariat said that typically it takes 10-15 days for holding the first house after getting a nod from LG office. “We have to provide time to the councilors to file nominations for the posts of mayor/deputy mayor and some period has to be provided for withdrawing the nominations. It will take atleast 10-15 days after the nod from LG office,” the official added. In 2017 civic polls, the elections were held on 23rd April, results were announced on 26th April while the first house for East, North and South MCD where mayoral elections were held occurred in late May (19-23 May 2022) As a result of 2022 MCD elections, 134 AAP members, 104 BJP member, 9 Congress members and 3 independents have won from their respective wards. The House will be convened at the Civic Centre, the headquarters of the MCD at Minto Road. The house comprises of 250 elected councilors, 10 Member of Parliaments and 13 MLAs nominated by the speaker of Delhi assembly. LG office has not responded on the query related to the constitution of first house.
Changed name notified
The central government has notified changed name and number of various municipal wards in Delhi, days after the civic polls were held in the city. In a notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs on December 6, the government has shared the list of wards that fall under each of the 12 zones, and the corresponding ward numbers accorded in consequent of the recent delimitation exercise. The 12 zones are Narela Zone, Civil Lines Zone, Rohini Zone, Keshavpuram Zone, City-Sadar Paharganj Zone, Karol Bagh Zone, West Zone, Najaffgarh Zone, Central Zone, South, Shahdara North Zone and Shadara South Zone.
