The Supreme Court Wednesday said it would hear on July 26 a plea by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) challenging the postponement of the Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCD) polls on the ground of delimitation of wards in the national capital. A bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar granted liberty to the petitioner to serve the advance copy of the plea to the standing counsel for the respondents. Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for AAP, told the bench that there were three municipal corporations in Delhi and their terms expired in mid of May this year.
He told the bench, also comprising Justices A S Oka and J B Pardiwala, that the three MCDs have been unified but post-unification, the elections cannot be delayed. The AAP has made the Centre, the State Election Commission, and the MCD, through the special officer, respondents in the plea.
The bench asked whether the counsel for the respondents were appearing in the matter. Singhvi said they would serve the central agency as well as the commission.
"List this matter on July 26. Liberty to serve an advance copy on the standing counsel for the respondents, including the central agency," the bench said. The matter was mentioned for urgent listing on Tuesday before a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana, which had taken note of the plea of the counsel representing AAP that the unification of three MCDs and the consequential delimitation exercise cannot be a valid ground to defer the civic polls.
The announcement of the election schedule for the three Delhi civic bodies was deferred in March this year and later, the Centre brought a Bill for the unification of the MCDs. The process relating to the delimitation of municipal wards is underway in Delhi.
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