NEW DELHI: The drama over election of one member of the 18-member standing committee of Municipal Corporation of Delhi , which stretched over two days, culminated in BJP councillor Sunder Singh Tanwar winning on Friday afternoon. The victory of Tanwar, from Bhati ward, was a foregone conclusion because both AAP and Congress - each for its own reasons - had withdrawn from the process.
BJP now has 10 members and AAP eight in the standing committee. This allows the former to elect its candidate as the committee's chairman. However, this won't happen without encountering roadblocks. The proposal for the committee's constitution requires the nod of the House.
Considering that AAP holds the majority in the House, there is every likelihood of the proposal being postponed unless the LG intervenes and issues a direction under section 487 of Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act.
The confrontation between the two parties is expected to persist at different stages, such as when the mayor needs to approve the file which will be routed through chief minister Atishi.
Earlier in the day, AAP councillors withdrew from the election, saying LG's order and the commissioner's decision to proceed with the polls even after mayor Shelly Oberoi had on Friday postponed it till Oct 5 violated the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act.
In accordance with the procedures and timing specified by the corporation during the beginning of Friday’s meeting, municipal officials waited for twoand-a-half hours to complete the election process. After BJP councillors cast their votes, everyone remained in the house till 3.50pm, giving the absent councillors time to cast their votes. The names of the missing councillors were called out four times before counting commenced.
Additional commissioner Jitender Yadav, who was presiding over the meeting, announced the result, declaring 115 votes in favour of Tanwar and zero votes for AAP candidate Nirmala Kumari, councillor from Sainik Enclave. “Considering the fact that the qualifying quota for the election is 58 votes, the BJP candidate is declared as the winner and a member of the standing committee,” said MCD in a statement.
Just an hour before the election, mayor Oberoi had issued a letter directing the commissioner not to proceed with the election, emphasising the need for legal compliance in conducting the standing committee election on the revised date.
“When your order was issued on Sept 26 late at night, there was inadequate time for the councillors to reach for the said meeting. In fact, most councillors have not even received the meeting notice by 10am on Sept 27. Therefore, to expect them to attend the meeting at such a short notice is not only a violation of their electoral rights as public representatives but also violates the fair democratic process and principles of natural justice,” she said, declaring the commissioner’s order ‘ab initio null and void’. She had, in fact, asked him to declare the election scheduled for Friday as “illegal and unlawful”.
Oberoi also termed the LG’s directive unconstitutional. “This order is illegal and unconstitutional as it is a gross violation of the statutory scheme of DMC Act and Delhi Municipal Corporation (Procedure & Conduct of Business) Regulations, 1958,” she said in the letter. AAP also issued a statement saying regulation 51 of DMC Act stated that the election of a standing committee member should be held at a meeting of the corporation.
It pointed out that regulation 3(2) stated that the power to fix the date, time and place of the meeting of the corporation vests solely with the mayor. It pointed out that section 76 of DMC Act makes it clear that the presiding officer for any meeting has to be the mayor and that, in her absence, the deputy mayor, and in his absence, any other councillor can perform the role. Therefore, under no circumstances can any other person (including additional commissioner etc) be appointed as apresiding officer, said the party.
Responding to this, an MCD official said the house was adjourned on Sept 26 and can be summoned for a sitting within an hour. “Moreover, the session was called only to hold the election that has been pending for a long time. The mayor must have powers under DMC Act to preside and hold meetings but she didn’t exercise them. Even the deputy mayor, Aaley Mohammad, and senior member Mukesh Goyal refused to preside over the meeting which is why the LG was approached and he superseded her decision under section 487 of the DMC Act,” said the official.
This section gives the central govt the right to issue directions to the corporation or any municipal authority if a duty imposed on the corporation or authority has not been performed or has been performed in an inadequate or unsuitable manner. This applies even if adequate financial provisions have not been made for performance of a duty.
The election had been initially postponed by the mayor till Oct 5 due to disruptions caused by frisking of councillors on Thursday. However, the LG had overruled the postponement and instructed commissioner Ashwani Kumar to conduct the election on Friday at 1pm.
Following this, the commissioner issued a late-night order, appointing additional municipal commissioner Jitender Yadav to preside over the meeting and act as returning officer to oversee the election for the seat which fell vacant after BJP leader Kamaljeet Sehrawat was elected West Delhi MP.
“The standing committee has not been constituted for 21 months. In the larger public interest and in order to preserve the democratic spirit of the municipal body and in exercise of section 487 of DMC Act, the decision was taken. Mobiles were not allowed for secrecy of the ballot,” said the commissioner in his order.
BJP now has 10 members and AAP eight in the standing committee. This allows the former to elect its candidate as the committee's chairman. However, this won't happen without encountering roadblocks. The proposal for the committee's constitution requires the nod of the House.
Considering that AAP holds the majority in the House, there is every likelihood of the proposal being postponed unless the LG intervenes and issues a direction under section 487 of Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) Act.
The confrontation between the two parties is expected to persist at different stages, such as when the mayor needs to approve the file which will be routed through chief minister Atishi.
Earlier in the day, AAP councillors withdrew from the election, saying LG's order and the commissioner's decision to proceed with the polls even after mayor Shelly Oberoi had on Friday postponed it till Oct 5 violated the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act.
In accordance with the procedures and timing specified by the corporation during the beginning of Friday’s meeting, municipal officials waited for twoand-a-half hours to complete the election process. After BJP councillors cast their votes, everyone remained in the house till 3.50pm, giving the absent councillors time to cast their votes. The names of the missing councillors were called out four times before counting commenced.
Additional commissioner Jitender Yadav, who was presiding over the meeting, announced the result, declaring 115 votes in favour of Tanwar and zero votes for AAP candidate Nirmala Kumari, councillor from Sainik Enclave. “Considering the fact that the qualifying quota for the election is 58 votes, the BJP candidate is declared as the winner and a member of the standing committee,” said MCD in a statement.
Just an hour before the election, mayor Oberoi had issued a letter directing the commissioner not to proceed with the election, emphasising the need for legal compliance in conducting the standing committee election on the revised date.
“When your order was issued on Sept 26 late at night, there was inadequate time for the councillors to reach for the said meeting. In fact, most councillors have not even received the meeting notice by 10am on Sept 27. Therefore, to expect them to attend the meeting at such a short notice is not only a violation of their electoral rights as public representatives but also violates the fair democratic process and principles of natural justice,” she said, declaring the commissioner’s order ‘ab initio null and void’. She had, in fact, asked him to declare the election scheduled for Friday as “illegal and unlawful”.
Oberoi also termed the LG’s directive unconstitutional. “This order is illegal and unconstitutional as it is a gross violation of the statutory scheme of DMC Act and Delhi Municipal Corporation (Procedure & Conduct of Business) Regulations, 1958,” she said in the letter. AAP also issued a statement saying regulation 51 of DMC Act stated that the election of a standing committee member should be held at a meeting of the corporation.
It pointed out that regulation 3(2) stated that the power to fix the date, time and place of the meeting of the corporation vests solely with the mayor. It pointed out that section 76 of DMC Act makes it clear that the presiding officer for any meeting has to be the mayor and that, in her absence, the deputy mayor, and in his absence, any other councillor can perform the role. Therefore, under no circumstances can any other person (including additional commissioner etc) be appointed as apresiding officer, said the party.
Responding to this, an MCD official said the house was adjourned on Sept 26 and can be summoned for a sitting within an hour. “Moreover, the session was called only to hold the election that has been pending for a long time. The mayor must have powers under DMC Act to preside and hold meetings but she didn’t exercise them. Even the deputy mayor, Aaley Mohammad, and senior member Mukesh Goyal refused to preside over the meeting which is why the LG was approached and he superseded her decision under section 487 of the DMC Act,” said the official.
This section gives the central govt the right to issue directions to the corporation or any municipal authority if a duty imposed on the corporation or authority has not been performed or has been performed in an inadequate or unsuitable manner. This applies even if adequate financial provisions have not been made for performance of a duty.
The election had been initially postponed by the mayor till Oct 5 due to disruptions caused by frisking of councillors on Thursday. However, the LG had overruled the postponement and instructed commissioner Ashwani Kumar to conduct the election on Friday at 1pm.
Following this, the commissioner issued a late-night order, appointing additional municipal commissioner Jitender Yadav to preside over the meeting and act as returning officer to oversee the election for the seat which fell vacant after BJP leader Kamaljeet Sehrawat was elected West Delhi MP.
“The standing committee has not been constituted for 21 months. In the larger public interest and in order to preserve the democratic spirit of the municipal body and in exercise of section 487 of DMC Act, the decision was taken. Mobiles were not allowed for secrecy of the ballot,” said the commissioner in his order.
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