BJP councillor Raja Iqbal Singh on Tuesday withdrew from the Supreme Court his contempt plea against Delhi Mayor Shelly Oberoi over the election to fill vacancy in the MCD's standing committee after the apex court suggested that he should approach the Delhi High Court as that would be the appropriate forum. Senior advocate Sonia Mathur, appearing for Singh, agreed to the suggestion made by the bench of Justices Surya Kant and Ujjal Bhuyan, and withdrew the plea. The matter was dismissed as withdrawn.

 In his contempt plea, Singh submitted that there was a "wilful and deliberate disobedience" by the mayor of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) of the apex court order dated August 5, passed in a writ petition "for holding elections to the post rendered vacant of the Standing Committee of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi on account of Ms Kamaljeet Sehrawat, Municipal Councillor, Ward No. 120 (Dwarka-B) being elected as a Member of Parliament (Lok Sabha)".

 The contempt petition stated that according to the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957, such vacancies have to be filled within a period of a month.

 It alleged that on September 26, the mayor "arbitrarily postponed the election to October 5, 2024, leading to concerns that the democratic process was being deliberately obstructed".

 "This led to the intervention of Lieutenant-Governor V K Saxena who directed that the election be held by the end of the day on September 26. But the Mayor arbitrarily deferred this too, in violation of the SC's August 5 order," the plea said.

 The BJP won the last vacant seat of the MCD's 18-member standing committee unopposed as the councillors of the ruling AAP abstained from voting.

On August 5, the apex court ruled that the law "expressly enables" the lieutenant governor to nominate aldermen to the MCD and he was not bound by the advice of the council of ministers in the matter.