Bombay High Court (File) Observing it to be a “politically motivated” PIL, the Bombay High Court on Monday dismissed a plea filed by two BJP and MNS workers challenging the draft delimitation notification issued by Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal for the upcoming civic elections.
A division bench of Justice AA Sayed and Justice Abhay Ahuja also imposed a cost of Rs 25,000 each on the two petitioners, Nitesh Rajhans Singh of the BJP and Sagar Kantilal Devre of the MNS. The amount is to be paid to the Maharashtra State Legal Services Authority within three weeks from Monday.
Singh and Devre had challenged the “legality and propriety” of the BMC delimitation notification published on February 1, claiming that the State Election Commission (SEC) had not delegated such powers to the corporation.
The BMC had published the notification along with the new map of the wards and sought public feedback on it till February 14.
Under the draft delimitation plan, the number of wards in the city has been increased from 227 to 236, and the boundaries of the wards have also been changed. Of the nine new wards, three each have been added from the island city, the western suburbs and the eastern suburbs.
The court, in its order, observed that there is no merit in the petitioners’ contention that BMC Commissioner was not competent to issue notification.
The bench accepted submission by advocate Sachindra Shetye for the SEC, who said the contention of the petitioners was misplaced as the poll body on January 27, 2005 had stipulated that while the state government cannot change the overall boundaries of the civic body, it put no restrictions on changing the boundaries of individual wards.
Noting that PIL was “misconceived,” the bench imposed costs on the petitioners and observed: “The PIL filed by members of rival political parties to the ruling coalition government, appears to be politically motivated ostensibly filed in public interest, and without any averment whether the petitioner had raised any objections to the draft Notification, for which the last date was February 14.”
Disposing of the plea, it also held that petitioner failed to prove that the exercise to change the boundaries of the wards is being done to gain political mileage.
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