SC grants more time to Centre on AAP's plea to hold MCD polls

New Delhi, July 28: The Supreme Court on Thursday granted more time to Centre and State Election Commission to file their responses on Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) plea seeking directions to conduct municipal elections in Delhi in a free, fair and expeditious manner.

The court has listed the matter for August 5.

The apex court on Tuesday said it would hear on July 28 a plea filed by the Aam Aadmi Party challenging the postponement of Municipal Corporations of Delhi (MCD) polls on grounds of delimitation of wards in the national capital.

The AAP has made the Centre, the State Election Commission, and the MCD, through the special officer, respondents in the petition.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the AAP, had last week told the bench that there were three municipal corporations in Delhi and their terms expired in mid of May this year. He had said that the three MCDs have been unified but post-unification, the elections cannot be delayed.

The matter was earlier mentioned for urgent listing before a bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana, which had taken note of the plea of the counsel representing AAP that the unification of three MCDs and the consequential delimitation exercise cannot be a valid ground to defer the civic polls.

The announcement of the election schedule for the three Delhi civic bodies was deferred in March this year and later, the Centre brought a Bill for the unification of the MCDs. The process relating to the delimitation of municipal wards is underway in Delhi.