Aam Aadmi Party in Supreme Court over ‘poll-foil bid’

AAP hopes to dislodge the BJP from municipal corporations, having tasted resounding success in the Punjab Assembly elections

Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal.: File photo

TT Legal Correspondent   |   New Delhi   |  18.03.22  :  The Aam Aadmi Party on Thursday moved the Supreme Court accusing the Centre of making “brazen” attempts to “stultify free and fair municipal elections in Delhi” through “unofficial” instructions to the state poll panel that is expected to act independently of the government.

The terms of the three municipal corporations in Delhi come to an end in May this year. All the three corporations — in North, South and East Delhi — are now helmed by the BJP.

The AAP, which runs the Delhi government, hopes to dislodge the BJP from the municipal corporations, having tasted resounding success in the recent Punjab Assembly elections.

In a petition filed through advocate Shadan Farasat, the AAP stated that the state election commission had been preparing for the Delhi municipal elections and had declared in multiple notices, notifications and orders that the polls would be conducted in April 2022.

The commission had on March 9 this year circulated a letter indicating its intent to hold a media conference at 5pm on that day to declare the specific schedule of the municipal elections, to be conducted in April.

However, half an hour later, the poll panel issued a media note mentioning that it had received communication from the lieutenant governor of Delhi conveying that the central government was intending to pass a legislation to merge the three municipal corporations of Delhi.

In light of this communication, the media conference to declare the election schedule was indefinitely postponed and the municipal elections were consequently deferred.

“The brazen influence of the Government of India over the State Election Commission and its flagrant meddling with the conduct of Municipal Elections forms the subject matter of this writ petition,” the AAP petition in the Supreme Court said.

“By being the sole reason behind the delay of the Municipal Elections, the Government of India is very evidently making attempts to buckle the independence of the State Election Commission and stultify free and fair Municipal Elections in Delhi,” the petition said.

According to the AAP, it is challenging the arbitrary decision of the state election commission to postpone the municipal polls without any reasonable grounds, and solely on the basis of unofficial communication from the Centre.

“Such insufficient reasons to postpone elections, rendering the conduct of timely elections before the expiry of the constitutionally mandated duration of the Municipal Corporations effectively impossible, clearly hamper… the sanctity of impartial elections and must be immediately stemmed by this Hon’ble Court.

“The important question of constitutional significance raised in the present writ petition is whether the State Election Commission can be influenced by an unofficial communication sent by the Central Government to defer Municipal Elections which the Commission was otherwise absolutely prepared to schedule and conduct,” the AAP petition said.

“Section 4 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, codifies this five-year period of operation of the three Municipal Corporations in Delhi, which have been tasked with performing several administrative functions in Delhi. This duration is coming to an end

in May 2022. Thus, elections for Councillors are due in these Corporations”, the plea said.

It added that the SEC of the National Capital Territory of Delhi, set up under Article 243ZA of the Constitution, is responsible for the free, fair, and impartial conduct of these elections under Section 7 of the 1957 Act.