Delhi government 'advice' not needed to name aldermen: LG to SC

NEW DELHI: LG V K Saxena on Tuesday told the Supreme Court that the functioning of MCD is independent of the governance of the national capital, and asserted that the administrator is not required to take "aid and advice" of the elected (AAP) government in nominating aldermen to the civic body.
If the Kejriwal government thought it would be relatively easy in getting a favourable verdict on the contentious issue, given the recent SC ruling that the LG is bound by the aid and advice of the council of ministers headed by the CM over who controls bureaucracy in the capital, additional solicitor general Sanjay Jain turned an unexpected page from the Constitution relating to the creation of municipalities under Article 243Q. He differentiated the structure and mechanism of governance provided under the MCD Act from Article 239AA, which created the Delhi assembly and provided for an elected government.
Can't have an exception: Govt
For the Delhi government, senior advocate A M Singhvi informed a bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and J B Pardiwala that the five-judge bench had considered all aspects of governance with regard to the unique status of Delhi and ruled that the LG is bound by the aid and advice of the council of ministers as the governor in a state.
Singhvi said since the coming into force of GNCTD Act in 1991, in the last 30 years, the aldermen had always been nominated on the aid and advice of the elected government. "There cannot be an exception today in terms of settled law and practice," he said.
Jain differentiated between the elected government and the corporation. "Governance of municipalities is independent of the regime of governance..." he said. " Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957 was amended in 2011 for trifurcation of MCD... By this amendment Act, the term 'government' was substituted in various provisions. This Amendment Act of 2011 did not disturb the power of the Administrator to nominate aldermen under Section 3(3) of the DMC Act.
"In 2022 as well, Parliament undertook the exercise to unify MCD and substituted the term 'government' under various sections but, at the same time, consciously retained the original definition of 'administrator'... powers of the administrator remained untouched," he said. "Above developments indicate MCD is an institution of self-government and the role of the administrator, within the meaning of DMC Act is not a mirror image of what is provided under Article 239AA (creation of assembly and elected government) or GNCTD Act..." Jain said. The matter will be heard next on Wednesday.