Order on MCD election to be pronounced on Monday

New Delhi, Mar 3 (UNI) Delhi High Court today reserved its verdict on the petition filed by a Municipality Councillor challenging the method of reserving constituencies for women and Scheduled Caste candidates by the Delimitation Commission for the coming MCD election.

After hearing the arguments from the petitioners and State Election Commission(SEC), Justice B D Ahmed said the order would be pronounced on Monday.

Senior Counsel B P Chaudhury appearing for Minto Road Councillor Ramesh Dutta submitted that the Delimitation Commission had reserved the consituencies without assigning any reason.

''There are at least 36 discrepancies in the report which had reserved one thirds for women candidates,'' said Counsel Digvijay Roy.

The government recently notified the commission report increasing the wards to 272 from 134 in the present Council, said Mr Chaudhury.

But according to the Act, the manner of reservation had to be notified along with the notification of the constituencies, he said.

SEC Counsel Tripathy said that one thirds of the constituencies had been reserved in accordance with the provisions of the 74th Constitution amendment and would be rotated next time.

During the arguments, Justice Ahmed asked the counsel appearing for SEC to state the reasons for not justifying the reservation of the constituencies. ''Can you also determine the manner on what basis you are going to rotate the constituencies next time?'' questioned the Judge.

The petitioner has sought direction to quash the notification of the commission saying it was arbitrary and mala fide, which denied him an opportunity to contest from either the Minto Road or Daryaganj ward by reserving both for women.

The Commission has split the Minto Road ward into Minto Road and Daryaganj.

UNI