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Synopsis

The Supreme Court today dismissed a plea challenging the order of the Delhi High Court refusing to stay the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections, which are scheduled to be held on December 4 as the same had become infructuous.

A division bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and A.S. Oka. dismissed the petition while observing that the elections are on Sunday.

In November, the Delhi High Court had dismissed the petition while holding that it is a settled position of law that once an election notification is published, the same cannot be stayed by the Court.

The plea was filed by one Sanjay Gupta alleging that the State Election Commission has reserved the Municipal wards for the Scheduled Castes population in an arbitrary manner. It was his claim that the reservation order was illegal in the eyes of law and had defeated the purpose of Article 243T of the Constitution.

 The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022 has reduced the number of wards in the national capital from 272 to 250 and combined three different municipal corporations into one.

Previously a delimitation committee had completed the exercise and submitted a draft report to the Central Government on 25th August.

The Central Government had issued a notification on September 10 fixing a total number of seats as 250, out of which 42 were reserved for the SC in the MCD. The public was then asked by way of a notice to give their suggestions and objections regarding draft delimitation on or before the 3rd of October.