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The Delhi High Court today issued notice to the Government of Delhi for its decision appointing the serving Chief Secretary of Delhi as Election Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).

The matter was being heard  by a bench of Chief Justice DN Patel and Justice Jyoti Singh.

Preferred on behalf of petitioner Dr. Nand Kishor Garg under Article 226 and 227 of the Constitution of India, the plea seeks direction to the respondents for immediate withdrawal of notification dated November 25 whereby it states that the Delhi Government has "improperly earmarked the further appointment of serving chief secretary of Government of NCT of Delhi as Election Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Delhi w.e.f. April 21, 2022." 

Garg, in his petition, filed through Advocate Shashank Deo Shuddhi, claims that this violates settled principles of law, which mandate that "important government posts" like that of the Election Commissioner of the MCD must be offered to a "neutral and apolitical person" who is not party to political and administrative decisions of a particular government.

He has further pointed out that the decision is capable of affecting free and fair elections in MCD as this principle has already been examined and settled by the Supreme Court in a case titled as State Of Goa & Anr vs Fauzia Imtiaz Shaikh & Anr.

The petition highlights that the serving Chief Secretary has his tenure of service till March 8, 2023 only, however, acting with vested interests and ulterior motives decided to extend the service tenure of incumbent Chief Secretary by more than 5 years.

It is alleged that as the incumbent Chief Secretary of Delhi has been actively associated with the Delhi government at various levels of administrative decisions, the Delhi Government has obliged the serving Chief Secretary in order to ensure a "payback" to it in forth coming MCD elections.

It has also been pointed out that the said impugned notification dated November 25, 2021 is prima facie biased, as the vacancy for the Election Commissioner begins w.e.f. April 21, 2022 however, the incumbent Chief Secretary is being appointed without considering that he still holds the government post until March 8, 2023 and "has not even applied for voluntary retirement from his present service."

It has been argued that this appointment "gravely undermines the fairness and objectivity of the institutional integrity of the electioneering in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi, as the incumbent Chief Secretary will now certainly be subservient to the command of the Respondent No.1" (Delhi government).

In this backdrop, the petitioner has sought for the impugned notification dated November 25, 2021 to be declared as unconstitutional and illegal. 

Cause Title: Dr. Nand Kishor Garg vs Govt. of NCT of Delhi & Ors.