In setback for Delhi’s AAP govt, Supreme Court upholds L-G’s power to nominate 10 aldermen to MCD

Supreme Court rejects Delhi government's plea on LG's power to nominate MCD aldermen, upholding LG's authority.

The Supreme Court on August 5 held that the authority of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi to nominate 10 persons with special knowledge of municipal administration to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi is a statutory duty attached to his office and he is not bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.

The judgment authored by Justice P.S. Narasimha, heading a Bench also comprising Justice Sanjay Kumar, held that the power of the LG is drawn from Section 3(3)(b)(1) of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act 1957.

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The Act, a parliamentary law, was amended in 1993 to vest the power to nominate 10 expert persons.

The two-judge Bench referred to a Constitution Bench judgment which had laid down that the executive power of the Delhi government would conform to a parliamentary law dealing with subjects in the State and Concurrent Lists of the Seventh Schedule of the Constitution.

Justice Narasimha did not agree with senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for Delhi, that the power of the L-G was both semantic and a “relic of the past”.

Mr. Singhvi had argued that the national capital had a democratically elected government, which should be allowed to run its own municipal administration without interference from the L-G office.