Amid the ongoing dispute over the delimitation of wards for the upcoming Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) elections, it has come to light that the crucial civic body polls are likely to get further delayed.
This development came as on Wednesday, November 30, the Maharashtra Government informed the Bombay High Court (HC) that it would not go ahead with the process of delimitation relating to the BMC till December 20.
The high court was hearing petitions challenging an ordinance and then the Act brought in by the Maharashtra government on the issue.
Advocate Vikram Nankani, appearing for the state government, said there were multiple petitions filed in the Supreme Court, which also challenged the Maharashtra government's Act to reduce the number of councillors in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation.
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.
After the bench of Justices SV Gangapurwala and AS Doctor directed the state to say if status quo on the issue would be maintained, Nankani said the state will not proceed with the delimitation process till the next date of hearing on December 20.
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.
For those unversed, the previous Uddhav Thackeray government had increased the wards from 227 to 236. However, six weeks after it came into power, the current Ekknath Shinde dispensation, reversed saying the delimitation should be based on the latest census figures.
In response to this, Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray)’s former corporator Raju S Pednekar had moved the Bombay High Court seeking the annulment of the August 4, 2022 ordinance.