HC seeks poll panel reply on pleas against MCD election

The Delhi High Court today sought reply of the poll panel on pleas seeking to quash the notification laying down the manner of allocation of wards for reserved categories and women in the upcoming MCD polls.
A bench of Justices Sanjiv Khanna and Chander Shekhar issued notice to the Delhi State Election Commission and directed them to file their affidavit explaining the manner in which they have allotted the seats for the reserved category.
The matter has now been fixed for further hearing on March 16, the next date of hearing.
The bench was hearing pleas filed by NGOs challenging the poll panel's February 6 notification, announcing the election for 272 wards of the three municipal corporations here.

The election are scheduled to be held in April.
Many social activist have also approached the high court seeking stalling of the MCD polls, which was declined by the bench today.

In its pleas, the NGOs said the Delhi Municipal Corporation (DMC) in 2011 was divided into three zone -- North Delhi Municipal Corporation, East Delhi Municipal Corporation and South Delhi Municipal Corporation.
The petitioners have sought quashing of the January 13 order with regard to delimitation of 272 wards with the composition of wards in each Assembly constituency.
It said while the number of wards in each of the three corporations - 104 each in South Delhi Municipal Corporation (SDMC) and North Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) and 64 in East Delhi Municipal Corporation (EDMC) has remained the same, the number of wards in a few assembly segments has changed, ranging from three to seven.

In 2012, ahead of the MCD elections, a notification was issued regarding allocation of wards amongst schedule caste, women and general category, the pleas stated.
Claiming that the present notification was contrary tothe Constitution as well as Section 3 of the DMC Act, one of the pleademanded that it should be quashed and a fresh circular issued in accordance with the law.
It sought direction to identify and determine the municipal wards for the purpose of reservation for schedule caste, women and general category in terms of Article 243 of the Constitution.
The Article provides for reservation of seats for the schedule castes in the municipal area by rotation to different constituency in the municipality.

The pleas have alleged that the poll panel, government and others agencies have not made reservation to differentconstituencies in a municipality by rotation.