SC refuses to entertain plea seeking stay of Delhi MCD polls

New Delhi, Dec 2: The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea seeking to stay the Municipal Corporation of Delhi polls scheduled to be held on December 4.

A bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Abhay S Oka said with the passage of time, the plea has become infructuous.

The counsel for petitioner 'National Youth Party’ said they are challenging the delimitation of wards done for the poll and seeking stay of the municipal elections.

The bench said the polling is scheduled to be held on Sunday and it cannot interfere at this juncture.

The petitioner has challenged the November 9 order of the Delhi High Court by which it had refused to interfere with the municipal polls and dismissed the plea.

Earlier, the Delhi High Court had refused to stay the municipal elections scheduled for December 4. A bench of Chief Justice Satish Chandra Sharma and Justice Subramonium Prasad said the State Election Commission (SEC) had already issued a notification and it would remain unchanged.

The SEC announced the election schedule on November 4, according to which polling for 250 municipal wards will take place on December 4 and the results will be announced on December 7. On Wednesday, three petitions challenging the delimitation of wards and their reservation were listed before the high court. The bench issued notices on the petitions and asked the Centre, the Delhi government and the SEC to respond to them, while listing the pleas for further hearing on December 15.

During the hearing, the counsel for the petitioners urged the court to stay the elections till the pleas were heard. However, the Bench turned down the request, saying, "Once the elections are notified, we can't stay it."