The Election of the Mayor and Deputy Mayor of Delhi, which was scheduled on Friday, has been postponed over the selection of Presiding Officer.
The civic body postponed the mayoral polls after the Raj Niwas issued a letter on behalf of Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena, stating that he does not deem it appropriate to exercise his power as administrator to appoint the presiding officer in absence of the inputs from chief minister.
The MCD said even though it got the Election Commission's nod to hold the mayoral polls, the appointment of the presiding officer has not taken place.
The notice issued by the MCD Secretary stated, "since nomination of the Presiding Officer is mandatory as per Section 77(a) of the DMC Act, 1957 (as amended 2022). Therefore, it may not be possible to conduct elections of Mayor and Deputy Mayor as per schedule.”
The LG in his letter to the chief secretary said, "These are peculiar and unprecedented circumstances where the serving chief minister is under judicial custody as an under trial prisoner involving a corruption case and therefore cannot discharge his constitutionally obligated functions."
The letter also stated that after thoughtful consideration of the matter and for upholding the sanctity of law and Constitution, there is no scintilla of doubt that taking a decision regarding the appointment of the presiding officer in the circumstances, when the inputs of the chief minister are not available coupled with the factum that the minister is making wild and baseless allegations, would be grossly inappropriate both in terms of law and propriety.
The Election Commission had said on Wednesday that it has no objection to the MCD mayoral polls scheduled for April 26.
The proposal to appoint the presiding officer goes from the municipal secretary to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) commissioner and then onwards to the urban development secretary, the chief secretary, the urban development minister and the chief minister before it ends up with the LG.