SC says aldermen cannot vote for mayor as polls postponed

The court’s observation came on a petition by Shelly Oberoi, AAP’s mayor candidate, and party’s leader of the House Mukesh Goel

The Supreme Court on Monday observed that nominated members of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) cannot vote in the mayor elections, answering one of the most contentious questions that had disrupted three successive meetings of the civic body stalling the key polls that has allowed the Centre-nominated bureaucrats to run the House of councillors, instead of the public representatives.

The MCD House has so far met on January 4, January 24 and February 6 to elect a mayor, deputy mayor and six members to the Standing Committee. (HT Photo)

A bench headed by Chief Justice of India (CJI) Dhananjaya Y Chandrachud on Monday said, “Nominated members cannot vote in the elections for mayor, deputy mayor. The constitutional position is very clear under Article 243R.”

The article provides for nomination of persons with special knowledge or experience in municipal administration, but restricts them from voting in the meetings of the municipality.

The MCD House has so far met on January 4, January 24 and February 6 to elect a mayor, deputy mayor and six members to the Standing Committee, a panel that holds the maximum power in the civic body’s decision making process.

However, differences between the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) over the voting rights for aldermen, simultaneous polls to the three posts, and if convicted Delhi lawmakers nominated to the House by Delhi assembly speaker can participate in the elections, led to disruption of the proceedings, and consequently adjournment of the House.

On each occasion, the LG had to fix a fresh date for convening the House.

The court’s observation came on a petition by Shelly Oberoi, AAP’s mayor candidate, and party’s leader of the House Mukesh Goel. The two leaders had challenged the three rulings by the presiding officer, a BJP councillor -- the aldermen will be allowed to vote; polls to the three positions will be held on a single ballot and the two convicted AAP MLAs will not be allowed to participate in the elections.

Also, with the Supreme Court fixing February 17 as the next date of hearing, lieutenant governor VK Saxena agreed to postpone the mayor elections, for which he had earlier fixed February 16.

The AAP’s mayor candidate had demanded that the 10 aldermen nominated by the LG should not be allowed to vote. Further, the petition filed by advocate Shadan Farasat urged that the election to mayor, deputy mayor and standing committee be time-bound and held separately.

Additional solicitor general (ASG) Sanjay Jain appearing for LG Saxena, informed the court that the position of law needs to be argued. As the court was rising for the day, Jain said, “Since this court is not hearing the case today, the February 16 election can take place later.”

Along with LG, the pro-tem presiding officer of the House Satya Sharma was represented by senior advocate Maninder Singh who submitted that aldermen have voting right under the scheme of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act.

“The aldermen will be permitted to vote under the scheme of the Act. We will show that they become full-fledged members of the House,” Singh said.

The bench, also comprising justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala said, “Are you disputing that nominated members cannot vote?”

For the petitioner, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi commented, “This is an attractive argument”.

Singhvi said that the right of aldermen in the standing committee is on a different footing. “We are not on the standing committee. Have the petition heard on Friday. The election can be on Saturday,” he submitted.

The bench while permitting the matter to be heard on Friday said, “We will keep it on Friday. The ASG has said it (mayor polls) can be postponed beyond February 17.”

The AAP mayoral candidate had arrayed the LG and the presiding officer as parties to the petition as a prayer was made to remove the officer for arbitrarily conducting House proceedings.

An application for intervention was also filed on Monday by the rival BJP candidate Rekha Gupta. The court agreed to hear the applicant too on the next date.

The AAP won 134 out of 250 wards in the MCD elections, results of which were declared on December 7. The petition claimed that despite winning a majority, the party was not allowed to conduct the elections to the three posts in the House for two months.