Schedule for Delhi municipal polls hinges on MCD merger: Panel

According to Union home ministry officials aware of the matter, The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, is likely to be tabled in Parliament next week

The announcement of the schedule for the municipal corporation elections will depend on the amended Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, the state election commission officials said on Tuesday even as the Union Cabinet approved a proposal to unify the three civic bodies by amending the law that governs the municipal bodies in Delhi.

MCD elections were scheduled to be held in April. (Raj K Raj/HT)

According to Union home ministry officials aware of the matter, The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Bill, 2022, is likely to be tabled in Parliament next week.

The municipal elections in Delhi were scheduled to be completed before May 18, when the term of the three civic bodies was going to expire. A state election panel official said that if the three bodies are merged then the deadline for holding polls will no longer apply.

“The elections to the three municipal corporations – EDMC, SDMC, North MCD – were conducted in 2017, and according to Article 243 U of the Constitution, the next elections should be conducted before the expiry of their term. However, when the three corporations cease to exist, the deadline will have no meaning,” a senior station election commission official said, asking not to be named.

“The contents of the Bill for unification of the three corporations are not known yet. It is also not known whether the number of existing wards will remain 272 or the number of wards will change requiring a fresh delimitation exercise,” the official said.

The official added that MCD polls will now largely depend on new DMC Act. “If there is no change except the unification, then the elections may be held early. But in case there are more changes necessitating delimitation then it may take longer,” he said.

On March 9, the commission called a press conference to announce the schedule for MCD elections, but in a dramatic twist, deferred it saying it has received a communication from the Centre that it intends to unify the three corporations.

The commission sought a legal opinion on its constitutional position vis-a-vis the Centre’s communication. The official cited above on Tuesday said that the polls panel has received the legal opinion and was examining it.

Experts agreed with the election commission’s contention that the MCD elections now depend on the amended DMC Act.

Retired bureaucrat and former MCD commissioner KS Mehra said the commission has to ascertain what amendments are proposed to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act in the Bill. “Currently, we do not know the contents of the Bill. We do not know what amendments have been proposed in the Bill, whether it proposes delimitation of wards, and if the number of wards is going to change then elections cannot be held without a fresh delimitation. There is no need to dissolve the existing corporations because the councillors have been elected for a term of five years after which their term will expire and corporations will automatically stand dissolved. It will all depend on the nature of the amendments being brought in the Bill,” said Mehra.

PDT Achary, former Lok Sabha general secretary, said under Article 243 U section 2 of the Constitution no amendment of any law for the time being in force (Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 in MCD’s case) shall have the effect of causing dissolution of a municipality at any level, which is functioning immediately before such amendment, till the expiration of its duration specified in clause.

“Section 3 of Article 243 U of the Constitution of India requires that an election to constitute a municipality shall be completed before the expiry of its duration. The contents of the Bill are not known as of now. If a new corporation comes into existence by merging the three corporations and without changing the number of existing wards, then election has to be conducted before the expiry of the term of the existing corporations. If the Bill changes the number of wards, then delimitation will have to be carried out. Much will depend on the Bill which is passed in the Parliament. If the government does not dissolve the existing corporations and changes the number of wards and only changes the names of the corporations, then election will have to be conducted before May 18,” said Achary.