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When the State Election Commission of Delhi had called a press conference at 5 p.m. on March 9, 2022, it was widely reported that the schedule for the elections to the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi would be declared. However, the State Election Commissioner (SEC), S.K. Srivastava informed the media that it would be deferring the announcement following a letter from the Centre just earlier proposing the unification of the three municipal corporations.
In less than a month, both Houses of Parliament passed the Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act, 2022. In a move that appears to simply unify the trifurcated Delhi Municipal Corporations, the Central government has conferred upon itself various crucial powers to assume control over the Municipal Corporation of Delhi from the State government. The casualty of these changes introduced by the Central government is federalism.
The Central government’s line is that the amendment has been passed as in Article 239AA of the Constitution, which is a provision that provides for special status to Delhi. The Union Home Minister, Amit Shah, stated in Parliament that the law is based on the power of Parliament under Article 239AA(3)(b) to make laws for the State of Delhi “on any matter”. The law provides that the power to determine the number of wards, the extent of each ward, reservation of seats, number of seats of the Corporation, etc. will now be vested in the Central government. The number of seats of councilors in the Municipal Corporations of Delhi is also to be decided now by the Central government. By exercising that very power, the number of councilors in the Municipal Corporations of Delhi has been reduced from 272 to 250.
The Central government has also taken over powers from the State to decide on matters such as ‘salary and allowances, leave of absence of the Commissioner, the sanctioning of consolidation of loans by a corporation, and sanctioning suits for compensation against the Commissioner for the loss or waste or misapplication of the municipal fund or property’. The large-scale usurpation of powers by the Central government has been done without any consultation with the Delhi government, and all the major stakeholders were kept in the dark during the process.