HC refuses to hear plea against Centre's notice to NDMC member

The Delhi High Court today refused to entertain a plea seeking quashing of a show cause notice issued by the Centre to some members, including former Congress MLA Tajdar Babar, of New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).
"The petition is dismissed. At this stage, we cannot go into the merits of the case. Let them (Centre) pass an order," a bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice R S Endlaw said.
The plea filed by Babar and others alleged the Centre has issued a "malafide arbitrary and unjustifiable" show cause notice on June 30 under the NDMC Act as a step towards dissolving the civic body, which has a tenure till 2016.

"New government at the Centre has been taking malafide and arbitrary action to dislodge even constitutional authorities and other institutions and bodies without any justification and in an illegal manner," the plea, filed through lawyer K C Mittal, said.
The show cause notice is without any jurisdiction and moreover, the nominated members cannot be removed without any consultation with the Chief Minister, he said.
"We will know the reasons only when the order is passed. We cannot do anything at this stage," the bench said.

The plea has also challenged the validity of Section 398 of the NDMC Act on the ground that it is in conflict with section 4 of the Act.

It also alleged that the partial dissolution of NDMC cannot be effected.
NDMC, through notification dated January 18, 2011, was constituted afresh for 5 years expiring on January 17, 2016, it said, adding the show cause notice was issued to members to give reasons on issues of "power revenue losses in NDMC, problems of illegal squatters and personnel mis-management in NDMC".