By IANS,
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court Wednesday dismissed all petitions seeking quashing of the State Election Commission’s (SEC) decision to reserve seats for the Scheduled Castes (SC) and woman candidates in the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections in April.
The court held that it finds nothing wrong in the mode and manner of reservation of MCD seats for woman and the SC candidates by the state poll panel.
A division bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Rajiv Shakdher said: “We find nothing wrong with the action of the SEC qua the mode and manner of reservation of seats for the SC and the women and, thus, dismiss the writ petitions, leaving the parties to bear their own costs.”
A group of councillors belonging to both the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Congress had moved the court challenging the earmarking of seats as reserved for the SCs.
The court also declined to find fault with the delegation of power by the Delhi government to the SEC to earmark wards and reserve these for the SC and woman candidates.
“We are of the unequivocal view that no fault can be found with the delegation of power under Section 490B of the said Act (Delhi Municipal Corporation Act) by the notification dated Jan 24, 2012, and the challenge to the same is misplaced,” the bench observed.
The court further stated: “In our opinion, the fact that the central and the state governments in exercise of the powers conferred under the DMC Act have chosen to delegate this function, by issuance of notification under Section 490A and 490B of the DMC Act respectively, does not in any manner, in our opinion, erode the independent constitutional status enjoyed by the SEC under the Constitution.”
The petitioners had contended that the poll commission’s notification was “arbitrary, malafide and without any logic” as it had reserved seats for the SCs on the basis of the 2001 Census and not the recent 2011 Census.
The panel “acted without any logic” in reserving the seats on the basis of the 2001 Census – reserving those seats where the SC population was only 12 percent, and making those as general seats where the SC population was more than 40 percent, they contended.
The Election Commission opposed the plea, saying the rationale behind the reservation was to give due representation to SC candidates.