In a development that will further delay the crucial elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC), the Maharashtra Government on Wednesday informed the Bombay High Court that it would not go ahead with the process of delimitation relating to the BMC till December 20.
Relying on a submission made by the State Government’s special counsel Vikram Nankani, a HC bench of Justices S V Gangapurwala and Arif Doctor adjourned till December 20 the hearing of two petitions challenging the Eknath Shinde Government’s move to reverse the previous Uddhav Thackeray dispensation’s decision to increase the number of civic wards in Mumbai by nine wards.
The previous Uddhav Thackeray government had increased the wards from 227 to 236 which the current Ekknath Shinde dispensation reversed saying the delimitation should be based on the latest census figures.
In his submission before the high court, Nankani said that a similar matter was pending before the Supreme Court which is scheduled to hear the case on December 13.
Senior counsel Aspi Chinoy sought an early hearing in the case on a date convenient to all sides. The HC bench scheduled the next hearing of the case for December 20.
It may be recalled that the high court had on November 17 sought replies from the state government, State Election Commission (SEC) and BMC to a petition filed by an ex-municipal corporator to reversal of Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government’s decision on civic wards’ delimitation.
Six weeks after it came to power in the state on June 30 this year, the Eknath Shinde government had annulled the previous government’s decision to increase BMC's civic wards from 227 to 236.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)’s former corporator R S Pednekar had moved the Bombay High Court seeking the annulment of the August 4, 2022 ordinance. The ex-corporator also sought orders to the State Election Commission (SEC) to conduct BMC elections on the basis of delimitation based on the Supreme Court orders of July 20, 2022. The SEC had earlier this year issued a draft notification for delimitation of all 236 wards.
After the challenge to the ordinance culminated into an Act on September 8, Pednekar challenged the validity of the Act too.
In the normal course, the BMC polls were to be held in February 2022. However, the polls have already been delayed by more than nine months. Given the ongoing litigation over the delimitation of wards, it is unlikely that the polls will be held before February 2023.
