HC reserves order on plea challenging removal of NDMC members

Delhi High Court today reserved its order on a plea moved by four nominated Congress members of the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC), including former MLA Tajdar Babar, challenging their removal from a 13-member body.
A bench of Chief Justice G Rohini and Justice R S Endlaw said that it will pronounce the judgment after hearing the counsel for former MLA and the Centre.
The Centre, however, opposed the plea and said that if the members of a municipal council are not competent to perform or fail to deliver efficient services to the public they can dissolve and re-constitute the authority.

Petitioners Babar, Ashok Ahuja, I A Siddiqui and Sukha Ram sought quashing of the orders for nomination and subsequent appointment of the four members who have replaced them.
Additional Solicitor General Sanjan Jain, appearing for the Union government, however, said that they had noted some irregularities and shortcomings in the functioning of New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).
The petition, filed through lawyer K C Mittal, sought quashing of the Centre's notification of September 5, 2014 by which NDMC was dissolved and reconstituted by removing them and two other officers.
The petitioners contended that their term of office was to expire only in January 17, 2016 but they were removed "illegally" and prematurely "without authority of law".

They have also challenged the nomination and subsequent appointment of Karan Singh Tanwar, B S Bhati, Anita Arya and Abdul Rasheed as members of NDMC saying it was all done "in utter haste" on September 6 and has sought that the same be set aside.