NEW DELHI: India’s top court on Monday will deliver its verdict on a plea of the Aam Aadmi Party-led (AAP) Delhi government challenging the Lieutenant Governor’s (LG) decision to nominate aldermen in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) without the aid and advice of the council of ministers.According to the Supreme Court’s cause list, a bench headed by Justice PS Narasimha will deliver the verdict, which comes nearly 15 months after the Court concluded hearings on the matter.The MCD comprises 250 elected members and 10 nominated ones.Notably, a three-judge bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud, along with Justices Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala, had reserved the verdict in the matter on May 17, last year.During the hearing, the top court had observed that giving the LG the power to nominate aldermen will effectively mean that he can destabilise a democratically-elected MCD because these aldermen get appointed to the standing committees and have voting power.The Delhi government argued in its plea that this was the first instance since Article 239AA of the Constitution came into effect in 1991 where the Lieutenant Governor nominated aldermen to the MCD without consulting the elected government.”He (LG) has bypassed on this issue by ignoring the aid and advice of the state cabinet,” senior lawyer Abhishek Manu Singhvi, for the AAP government, told the apex court.Singhvi further argued that the LG had only two options in the contentious issue: either to accept the names recommended for nomination by the AAP-led elected government or to disagree with the proposal and refer the matter to the President for further consideration.Singhvi argued that the state government has not been given separate powers to nominate individuals to the MCD, and for the past 30 years, the practice has been for the Lieutenant Governor to nominate aldermen based on the aid and advice of the city government. He had also explained to the Supreme Court that while the nomination files come directly to the LG’s office, as he is the administrator, the LG did not follow the concept of aid and advice from the state cabinet in appointing aldermen to the MCD.Then Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, appearing for the LG’s office had submitted that just because a practice has been followed for 30 years does not mean it is correct.Singhvi had referred to the 2018 Constitution bench judgement of the apex 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 that the LG should have taken back the nominations by now.And on May 12, last year, the top court also observed that LG has to act on the “aid and advice” of the council of ministers of the Delhi government in nominating 10 aldermen to the MCD.In December 2022, the AAP defeated the BJP in the civic body elections, winning 134 wards and ending the saffron party’s 15-year run at the helm of the MCD. The BJP had won 104 seats, while the Congress finished a distant third with nine.(With additional inputs from PTI)
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