Tanisha Rana
Published on: October 28, 2022 at 20:43 IST
The delimitation procedure used for the upcoming Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) elections is being contested in a public interest litigation (PIL) petition, and the Delhi High Court on Friday requested a response from both the Central government and the Delhi government.
Anil Kumar, the president of the Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee, filed a PIL alleging that the Central government’s delimitation formula was arbitrary due to the extreme disparity in ward populations.
Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad‘s bench issued notice on the PIL.
“The Respondents in the final draft order have not followed the very purpose of the delimitation exercise to alter the boundaries of respective wards as per the latest Census figures so as to reflect as equal and proportionate representation,” the plea said.
It was emphasised in the petition submitted by the advocates Vikas Yadav, Sajid Chaudhary, and Gaurav Dua that the very goal of conducting delimitation was to determine an equal number of division of electorates in different wards, and that the same was to be based on population figures obtained from the most recent Census.
“This very purpose behind delimitation has become redundant, as in the final draft order the notified 250 wards are not having equal number of electorates,” the petition stated.
Additionally, it claimed that the division of wards along community and religious lines contravened the Constitution’s fundamental principles.
“The splitting of Dalit and Minority population from one ward to many adjoining wards has been done under conspiracy to bulldoze their voice,” the plea alleged.
The petition also argued that privileged wards had been hand-selected for smaller population sizes, whilst disadvantaged wards in the lower income group had had their population sizes increase as a result of the delimitation process.
The petitioner requested that the prior wards’ announcement be revoked as being unconstitutional and that new wards be defined according to the prescribed formula.
Case Title: Anil Kumar vs. Union of India