HC allows BJP councillor to withdraw plea alleging use of phones during MCD standing committee polls

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Monday allowed BJP councillor Sharad Kapoor to withdraw his plea alleging that Mayor Shelly Oberoi did not stick to the rules of not using mobile phones and pens during voting to elect the MCD Standing Committee members on February 22.

Justice Purushaindra Kumar Kaurav was hearing the case after Kapoor moved the HC two days after the polls seeking to declare the polls as null and void.

Fresh polls for the MCD’s highest decision-making body were, however, conducted on the mayor’s order on February 24, the day the plea was heard by the high court.

The polling held on February 24 also remained inconclusive and the mayor announced re-election on February 27 but the decision was stayed by the high court in another matter.

Kapoor, in his petition, had said that the Mayor “defied every constitutional and statutory norm” and “betrayed the mandate of the Constitution by allowing mobile phones and pens in the election proceedings.”

In a special hearing on February 25, the High Court put a stay on the notice issued by the newly-elected Mayor directing re-election of the six members of the MCD Standing Committee.

The court had said that no purpose will be served by conducting fresh elections on February 27.

Kapoor had said that he, along with others, had staged a protest against the Mayor’s act.

Several confidential ballot papers used for the election of the Standing Committee members were doing the rounds on social media.

The petition read: “In a bizarre turn of events, the newly-appointed Mayor, in a brazen defiance of constitutionally-established norms and propriety, allowed the councillors to bring their mobile phones and pens during the voting process with the malafide intent of manipulating and vitiating the election process.”

“In spite of the objection of the elected members of the BJP, which led to adjournments on several occasions and stalled the polling process for hours, the election process for six members of the Standing Committee was allowed to be continued by the mayor, while permitting the members to carry mobile phones and pens inside the polling booth, wherein several members belonging to the Aam Aadmi Party took pictures/snapshots of their votes (ballot paper), before casting their respective votes, in a gross violation of the complete electoral process, thwarting the principle of secrecy of ballot,” the plea read.

–IANS