New Delhi: In a blow to the AAP government on Monday, the Supreme Court ruled in favour of the Lt Governor to appoint the ten aldermen MCD unilaterally. It sustains the decision-making authority of the L-G in making these appointments unilaterally countered the AAP’s policy on this matter.
The Supreme Court had reserved its judgment on May 17, turning down the Centre’s submission, which said that empowering the L-G to nominate aldermen would be least democratic for the MCD. The court noted that the MCD has a total of 250 elected members and 10 nominated members; the nominee of the L-G in the MCD can jeopardize the functioning of the elected members of the MCD.
The court observed, “Is the nomination of specialised people in MCD of that much concern to the Centre? Actually, giving this power to the L-G would essentially mean that he can sack the democratically elected Municipal Committees because they (aldermen) will also have voting powers.”
In the December 2022 civic elections of MCD, AAP was very successful and won 134 wards, and the BJP was out of MCD power after 15 continuous years of rule. The BJP secured 104 assembly seats, while Congress managed to get only nine. Standing for the AAP, senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi stated that nominations should follow the aid and advice of the city government. This phenomenon has existed for the last thirty years.
But, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain to this startled counter by arguing that tradition does not make it right. He argued that given the position of the L-G as the administrator of the NCT, nominations to the MCD are conducted by the former, thereby making the concept of aid and advice irrelevant in the given context.
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