Kolkata: Calcutta High Court on Thursday refused to pass any interim order restraining authorities from calling an election to the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) based on delimitation — increasing wards from 144 to 209 — saying that it is for the state to decide “in what manner constituencies or KMC wards will be delimited or altered” and it is not for the “court to dictate.”“It is now well settled that it is not for the Court to dictate the manner in which the same would be done. If a delimitation exercise is carried out in conformity with the provisions of the relevant statute, and the constitutional provisions, and no breach of such provisions have been committed, the Court cannot interfere with the same,” the vacation bench held.A resident within KMC limits, Dipu Das, had moved the bench of Justice Hiranmay Bhattacharyya challenging the Sept 11 notification, a formal delimitation notification. Legal questions were raised challenging the KMC municipal commissioner recommending delimitation when the corporation stood dissolved.Justice Bhattacharyya was of the prima facie view that the commissioner, who was appointed as the administrator after the corporation’s dissolution, can make any recommendation for a delimitation exercise as required under Section 601 of the 1980 Act.Though no interim order was passed on the reasoning that it “would affect the interest of the public at large as the Corporation in that event would have to function in the absence of elected councillors,” the matter was kept for hearing and both KMC as well as Das were directed to file affidavits.Das alleged that the process of delimitation was taken on the basis of electoral rolls instead of the actual population, excluding a substantial number of residents from consideration. It was also claimed that the boundaries of the wards have been drawn without considering geographical contiguity, compactness and administrative convenience.“Such delimitation exercise was undertaken upon being influenced by previous electoral results with the mala fide intention of securing partisan advantage of the ruling political party. It also resulted in unequal municipal representation,” Dipu alleged.Advocate General Surajit Nath Mitra, representing KMC, stressed that Article 243 ZG of the Indian Constitution bars interference by courts in any law relating to delimitation of constituencies. It was submitted that the Municipal Commissioner was appointed on June 8 and is “vested with all powers of the members of the Corporation.” He further contended that objections and suggestions were invited at every stage of the delimitation exercise but Das had not submitted any objection against the alteration and instead simply approached the court.This was noted by the single judge, who also held that “at various stages objection(s)/suggestion(s) were invited and nothing appears to this Court at this stage that such power was exercised in breach of any provisions of 1980 Act or the provisions of the Constitution of India.”
