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Informist, Monday, Aug 5, 2024

 

--SC: Lieutenant governor can appoint aldermen without govt's advice

--CONTEXT: SC on Delhi lieutenant governor move to appoint aldermen 

--CONTEXT: Lieutenant governor appointed aldermen in Delhi civic body

 

NEW DELHI – The Supreme Court today held that the Lieutenant governor of Delhi can appoint aldermen in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi without the aid and advice of the national capital territory's council of ministers. The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi had last year challenged the Lieutenant governor's move to appoint 10 aldermen to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

 

The Lieutenant governor's power to appoint aldermen or nominated members of Delhi municipal corporation comes from Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957. The Act allows the Lieutenant governor to appoint people with special knowledge or experience in municipal administration to assist the corporation in taking decisions of public importance.

 

Though aldermen don't have voting rights in house meetings or mayoral polls, they have a role in electing the standing committee's members. This committee controls the corporation's purse strings for any project worth over 50 mln rupees. 

 

In the December 2022 municipal corporation polls, the Aam Aadmi Party defeated the Bharatiya Janata Party, which had been ruling the civic body for 15 years. AAP won 134 seats against the BJP's 104 in the 250-member house. However, for the past one and half years, the corporation has been working without a standing committee. Recently, the Delhi High Court questioned the corporation about how it plans to run the city if it can't sanction anything above 50 mln rupees.

 

The Delhi government had moved the apex court to quash the notifications by the Lieutenant governor to nominate and appoint 10 aldermen. The government had relied on the apex court's earlier verdicts related to the Lieutenant governor and said that it had to act on the aid and advice of the council of ministers. In the last 30 years, this was for the first time that the Lieutenant governor had nominated members on his own, the government had said.

 

The Lieutenant governor had said that there was a distinction between its role under Article 239AA of the Indian Constitution, which granted special status to Delhi, and its role as civic body's administrator. The top court today said that Delhi's Lieutenant governor was expected to act as per the mandate of Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 and not with the aid and advice of the council of ministers.  End

 

Reported by Surya Tripathi

Edited by Ashish Shirke

 

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