Relief to AAP as Court Says Nominated Members Can't Vote in MCD Mayor Election

Supreme Court, on Friday, 17 February, said that the nominated members cannot vote in electing the Delhi mayor.

Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal, while campaigning for MCD elections.

(Photo: Altered by The Quint)

The Supreme Court, while hearing a petition filed by Aam Aadmi Party's (AAP) mayor candidate Shelly Oberoi, said on Friday, 17 February, that the nominated members cannot vote in electing the mayor of the Delhi Municipal Corporation (MCD).

It also issued directions to the concerned authorities that the notification to hold mayoral election be issued within 24 hours.

The mayoral election was postponed on Monday for the fourth time due to the repeated tussles between AAP and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).

The apex court further said that the nominated members cannot vote in the elections for deputy mayor and standing committees either.

The order was given by the three-judge bench of Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, Justice PS Narasimha and Justice JB Pardiwala.

The MCD elections had taken place in December 2022 in which APP had secured a majority by winning 134 out of 250 wards, while the BJP had won 104 seats.

Another important point to emerge from the order was that the mayor has to be elected first and then the election of the deputy mayor should take place.

AAP supremo and chief minister of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal, took to Twitter to express his happiness over the decision.

"SC order victory of democracy. Many thanks to SC. Delhi will now get a mayor after two and a half months. It has been proved that how LG (Lieutenant Governor) and BJP together are passing illegal and unconstitutional orders in Delhi," he tweeted.

While the AAP named Shelly Oberoi and Aaley Mohammed Iqbal as the candidates for the post of mayor and deputy mayor respectively, the BJP's candidates for the posts are Rekha Gupta and Kamal Bagri.

AAP is slated to win the mayor post given its numbers, but if the nominated members were to get a voting right, it would have impacted the election of the standing committee, arguably MCD's most powerful body.