Today, On 1st October, A BJP councillor has withdrawn a contempt petition filed in the Supreme Court against the Delhi Mayor. The petition related to issues concerning the mayor’s conduct, but the Supreme Court advised the councillor to take the matter to the High Court.
New Delhi: BJP councillor Raja Iqbal Singh on Tuesday withdrew his contempt plea against Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi from the Supreme Court after the apex court suggested that the Delhi High Court would be the appropriate forum for the matter.
Senior advocate Sonia Mathur, representing Singh, accepted the suggestion made by the bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan, leading to the plea being withdrawn and the case dismissed.
In his petition, Singh claimed that the mayor had engaged in “wilful and deliberate disobedience” of the Supreme Court’s August 5 order, which called for the election to fill the vacant post in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi’s (MCD) Standing Committee.
The vacancy arose after Kamaljeet Sehrawat, a Municipal Councillor from Ward No. 120 (Dwarka-B), was elected as a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha).
The contempt petition pointed out that, as per the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, such vacancies must be filled within a month. Singh further alleged that the mayor “arbitrarily postponed the election to October 5, 2024,” raising concerns about the obstruction of the democratic process.
The plea stated,
“This led to the intervention of Lieutenant-Governor V K Saxena, who directed that the election be conducted by the end of the day on September 26. However, the Mayor arbitrarily postponed this as well, violating the Supreme Court’s August 5 order.”
In the most recent election, the BJP secured the last vacant seat on the MCD’s 18-member standing committee unopposed, as councillors from the ruling AAP chose not to participate in the voting process.
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On August 5, the Supreme Court ruled that the law “expressly enables” the Lieutenant Governor to nominate aldermen to the MCD and that he was not required to follow the advice of the council of ministers.
The court rejected the Delhi government’s plea, which had challenged the L-G’s authority to appoint 10 aldermen to the MCD without seeking the aid and advice of the council of ministers.
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