Shelly Oberoi, mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has moved a petition before the Supreme Court seeking directions to ensure that the functioning of MCD Standing Committee is permitted to be exercised by the MCD corporation, till the committee can be properly and legally constituted. 

In the petition, Shelly Oberoi mentioned that the Supreme Court on May 17, 2023 reserved its judgement on whether the Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi can nominate aldermen to the MCD without the aid and advice of Delhi government. 

The petition noted that under the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act (DMC Act), the ten nominated persons (aldermen) are entitled to vote in elections for the appointment of twelve out of eighteen seats in the Standing Committee.

Hence, on account of the pendency of the decision on the legality of the aldermen nominations, the Standing Committee could not be constituted. Shelly Oberoi further contended that such case pendency before the Supreme Court has brought the MCD’s functioning to a halt.

The petition stated that the prevailing situation has affected a range of governance functions of the MCD, from the procurement of textbooks and medical supplies for MCD’s school and health centres, to the maintenance of public parks, public toilets and other amenities.

Furthermore, it mentioned that the present plea seeks a direction that the functions of the Standing Committee be exercised by the House of the MCD, composed of all the elected councilors as defined in Section 3(3)(a) of the DMC Act. It added that the demand is proposed as an interim measure, until the top court decides on the case concerning the LG’s nomination of aldermen.

The plea further contended that the corporation is the body superior to the Standing Committee, in terms of both power and accountability, and that it would be appropriate for the functions of the Standing Committee to be exercised by the Corporation in its meetings, till the Committee can be properly and legally constituted. The petition has been filed through advocate Shadan Farasat.

The High Court of Delhi on Tuesday set aside the decision taken by Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi on re-election of six members of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) Standing Committee and directed her to declare the election results as per the voting held on February 24.

The Single-Judge Bench of Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav observed that Oberoi’s decision to reject the ballot of one of the persons was bad in law, as it was not based on any material, and her actions were without any power or authority.

The High Court directed Oberoi to declare the election results as per the voting held on February 24, while stating that the rejected ballot should be counted.

The Single-Judge Bench passed the order on a petition filed by two BJP Councillors – Kamaljeet Sehrawat and Shikha Roy, who had approached the High Court seeking directions to Oberoi to declare the result of election for six members of MCD’s standing committee held on February 24.

The petition further sought quashing of the Mayor’s notice calling for re-election of members of the standing committee.

The Delhi Mayor, who belongs to the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), had passed an order by which she ordered fresh elections for the MCD Standing Committee.

The petition alleged that the Mayor’s order was wrong because the elections have been completed successfully, wherein both BJP and AAP have won three seats each.

Earlier on February 25, the High Court had passed an interim order, staying the instructions passed by Oberoi.