MCD House to reconvene on October 5, poll for standing committee seat not on agenda

The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) House will reconvene for a meeting on Saturday to address various policy proposals after its last session was suspended over frisking of councillors. Mayor Shelly Oberoi had adjourned the previous session on September 26, when she also postponed the election for the last vacant seat of MCD's standing committee and ordered it for the next House meeting on October 5.

The agenda for the House meeting on Saturday noted that the MCD has already held the election of the last member of the standing committee on September 27, and has therefore not been included for the meeting.

"However, the matter is sub-judice before the Supreme Court," the agenda issued on Friday said.

An MCD official said the House was to discuss the date for constituting the standing committee but due to a directive from the Supreme Court instructing the Delhi Lieutenant Governor's office not to hold the election for the chairperson of the panel before the next hearing, the matter will not be discussed on Saturday.

In a last-minute intervention, Delhi LG V K Saxena overruled the mayor's postponement of the MCD standing committee poll and ordered the MCD commissioner to conduct the elections on September 27.

Following the LG's directive, the election was held on September 27 but AAP and Congress councillors boycotted it. BJP candidate Sunder Singh won 115-0 against the AAP candidate.
Mayor Oberoi has since challenged the election results in the Supreme Court, labelling them as "unconstitutional and undemocratic".

The Supreme Court, on Friday, questioned the "tearing hurry" displayed by the LG VK Saxena's office in conducting the polls for the sixth member of the MCD's standing committee, and expressed concerns over interference with the electoral process.

The court has instructed the LG's office to not hold elections for the chairman of the MCD's standing committee till the next hearing two weeks later.

In her plea, Oberoi asserted that the standing committee election was conducted under the directives of the LG's office even though it is solely the mayor's prerogative to decide the date, time and venue for the election.