The Lieutenant Governor (LG) of Delhi can now independently nominate aldermen to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) without the aid and advice of the Delhi government, the Supreme Court ruled Monday. This decision by a bench that included Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha, and Justice JB Pardiwala establishes that the LG’s power to nominate members is statutory, not executive.
Justice Narasimha said that Section 3(3)(b) of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act authorises the LG to nominate 10 individuals who are at least 25 years old and have special knowledge or experience in municipal administration.
“It is incorrect to suggest that power in Delhi LG was a semantic lottery. It is law made by the Parliament, it satisfies the discretion exercised by LG since law requires him to do so and falls under the exception of Article 239. It was 1993 DMC Act which first vested the power to nominate on LG and it is not a relic of the past,” he said.
Justice Narasimha also mentioned a previous ruling by a five-judge bench of the Supreme Court, which established that Parliament has the authority to legislate on state and concurrent lists for Delhi.
“As Parliament has conferred power on LG to nominate 10 aldermen, AAP government cannot quarrel with that,” he said.
The verdict is being seen as a huge setback for the Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in the national capital. The MCD, currently controlled by AAP after winning 134 seats in the 2022 elections, has 250 elected members and 10 nominated members. The BJP holds 104 seats in the MCD.
The verdict was delivered in response to a petition from the Delhi government seeking to quash notifications through which the Delhi LG appointed 10 members to the MCD on his own initiative, rather than on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.
In its petition, the Delhi government argued that the LG could not bypass the elected government to make appointments to the MCD independently. The petition asserted that the term “Administrator” in Article 239AA of the Constitution (Special Provisions with respect to Delhi) should be interpreted as the Administrator/LG acting on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.
Last year, the Supreme Court had expressed concerns that granting the LG the power to nominate aldermen could destabilise the elected civic body.
Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, representing the Delhi government, had contended that the state government never had separate powers to nominate MCD members and that the practice of the LG nominating aldermen with the city’s government advice had been followed for three decades. However, Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain, representing the LG’s office, argued that the duration of a practice does not necessarily make it correct.
The AAP has called the Supreme Court’s decision as a “jolt to democracy.”
AAP MP Sanjay Singh said, “”You are going to bypass an elected government and give all powers to the Lieutenant Governor so that he runs Delhi using a stick. This is not right for democracy. We respectfully disagree with the Supreme Court ruling. The verdict is at odds with the bench’s observations during the hearing.”
He added that the party would decide on future actions after reviewing the judgment in detail.
The Delhi government has long argued that the Centre exerts undue control over Delhi through the Lieutenant Governor, hindering its ability to function effectively. This ruling exacerbates the ongoing power struggle between the Delhi government and the central authorities, raising concerns about the future governance of the national capital.
