Manas Dasgupta
NEW DELHI, May 17: The Supreme Court on Wednesday dropped enough hints to suggest that it favoured clipping the powers of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, the Centre’s points man in the Delhi administration, in nominating aldermen in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) independent of the Delhi government.
The hints were dropped while hearing a petition filed by the Aam Aadmi Party government of Delhi challenging nomination of 10 aldermen in the MCD by the LG without seeking the recommendations of the Delhi government.
“Giving the Lieutenant Governor the power to nominate aldermen to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi will mean he can destabilise an elected civic body,” the Supreme Court observed and wondered whether these nominations were of so much concern to the Centre.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala made this observation while reserving its verdict on the plea of the Delhi government challenging the Lieutenant Governor’s power to nominate aldermen.
The MCD has 250 elected and 10 nominated members. The verdict on the issue may have far-reaching impact on the functioning of the MCD and the Delhi government in view of the continuous strife between the LG and the elected government.
In December last year, the AAP defeated the BJP in the civic elections, winning 134 wards and ending the saffron party’s 15-year run at the helm of the MCD. The BJP won 104 seats and the Congress finished a distant third with nine.
“Is the nomination of 12 specialised people in MCD of that much concern to the Centre? Actually, giving this power to the Lieutenant Governor would effectively mean that he can destabilise the democratically elected Municipal Committees because they (aldermen) will have voting powers also,” the bench said.
Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the Lieutenant Governor’s office said in the context of Delhi, it is pertinent to note that the 69th amendment came and GNCTD Act was notified, which collectively contain mechanism for governance of Delhi.
The 69th Amendment Act of 1991 accorded a special status to the Union Territory of Delhi by designing it as the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
Justice Narasimha asked Jain whether he means the power conferred upon the administrator was independent of the state and cannot be given to the state government.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the Delhi government, said no separate powers have been accorded to the state government to nominate people to the MCD, and for the past 30 years, the practice of the Lieutenant Governor nominating aldermen on the aid and advice of the city government has been followed.
“Lieutenant Governor never appoints aldermen in his own right,” he said, adding the nominations are always made by the President but on the aid and advice of the Union government.
Abhishek Singhvi referred to the 2018 constitution bench judgement of the Supreme Court and its recent verdict on control over services to claim the LG has to act as per the aid and advice of the government. The senior lawyer contended the Lieutenant Governor should have taken back the nominations by now.
“There are 12 zones, 12 ward committees and aldermen can be appointed to any committee…for the first time in the last 30 years, the LG has directly appointed members in the MCD and earlier it was always based on aid and advice (of the government),” Abhishek Singhvi has said in this arguments.
Earlier on May 12, the top court observed the Lieutenant Governor has to act on the “aid and advice” of the council of ministers of the Delhi government in nominating 10 aldermen to the MCD.
The bench then asked both Abhishek Singhvi and Sanjay Jain to file their written submissions in two days and said it will pass an order on the plea.
Only last week, the Supreme Court had given a major jolt to the LG when a five-judge constitution bench ruled that the elected Delhi government has legislative and executive powers over all but three services – public order, police and land – and substantially clipped the wings of the Centre’s point man in running day-to-day administration of the national capital.
In the petition filed through lawyer Shadan Farasat, the Arvind Kejriwal government has challenged the decision of the Lieutenant Governor to nominate the members without the aid and advice of the council of ministers.
Besides seeking quashing of the nominations, the plea has sought a direction to the Lieutenant Governor’s office to nominate members to the MCD under Section 3(3)(b)(i) of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act,” in accordance with the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.”
The petition claimed no proposal was allowed to originate from the elected government and the file pertaining to the nomination of aldermen was circulated to the departmental minister only on January 5, after nominations had already been made and notified.
The nomination of aldermen and their voting rights had caused inordinate delay in the election of the Delhi mayor as the AAP government suspected that despite being ousted from power at the MCD, the BJP government at the centre intended to hoist a saffron party nominee as the mayor and chairman of the all-important standing committee through its nominated aldermen. The elections were held three months later and the AAP nominee was elected the mayor only after the court barred the nominated members from voting in the mayoral elections. The constitution of the standing committee was still pending as the dispute over the power to nominate the aldermen has remained unresolved.
