On the eve of Friday’s mayoral election, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal asked Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena to reconsider what he alleged was the latter’s “unconstitutional” nomination of 10 aldermen to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
In his letter to Saxena on Thursday, Kejriwal called the nomination an attempt “to influence the process of elections” to the powerful MCD standing committee.
Nominated councillors, referred to as aldermen, do not have voting rights in mayoral polls but hold significant sway and play an important role in standing committee elections apart from MCD in-house as well as ward committee meetings.
Kejriwal stated that the names had been notified “entirely bypassing the council of ministers of the democratically elected government” and was an “aberration” from the past practice, and alleged that it was an attempt to “interfere with and impede the day-to-day administration and functioning” of Delhi.
“Traditionally, all files pertaining to nominations under section 3(b)(i) are routed through the urban development department, which is the nodal department/ministry of the municipal corporation. Such files are required [to be] and have, in the past, always been put up to the minister-in charge of the urban development department/ministry,” he stated.
“It is therefore unfortunate that recently, in a complete departure from this settled practice, files were routed directly by the MCD commissioner to the lieutenant governor completely bypassing the Delhi government. This is contrary to law and the Constitution,” the chief minister alleged, adding that the intent of the move appeared to be “to influence the process of elections” to the standing committee.
All the 10 aldermen nominated by the lieutenant governor are either former BJP councillors, office-bearers or members.
The 10 nominated members, he alleged, had been “intentionally chosen” to represent three of the 12 corporation zones. Since one member of the standing committee gets chosen from each zone, the attempt “quite clearly” seemed to be to “ensure that the composition of the standing committee is skewed in favour of the persons belonging/owing allegiance to the ruling party at the Centre” and to “subvert the will of the electorate” expressed in the recent MCD elections.
“I, therefore, respectfully beseech you once again to reconsider the nominations made by you by the captioned notification, having due regard to the provisions of the Constitution, the law laid down by the constitution bench of the Hon’ble Supreme Court, as also past practice and convention with regard to such nomination, and recall the decision taken by you in this regard,” he wrote.
Kejriwal’s deputy, Manish Sisodia, meanwhile, wrote to MCD commissioner Gyanesh Bharati, asking him to “desist from taking any further/consequent action regarding the nomination of the aldermen”.
Sisodia, who is also the minister for urban development, said the files had not been routed through the urban development department and his office.
“You are aware that in terms of Clause 4 of the Transaction of Business Rules 1993, I am the competent authority vested with the responsibility to take/approve decisions/policies/ actions with regard to the matters which pertain to the Urban Development Department. Indisputably, the municipal corporation falls within the administrative authority and jurisdiction of the urban development department.
“It is unfortunate that such a course of action has been resorted to, bypassing the elected government of the national capital territory of Delhi. Suffice it to say that this is contrary to settled practice with regard to the manner in which such nominations have been made historically in the past. Files pertaining to such nominations are always routed by the municipal corporation through the administrative department…,” he wrote.
Terming the notification as “ill-advised”, Sisodia called on Bharti to “respect the settled position of law” in the matter.