The Supreme Court today announced that the Delhi Lieutenant Governor (L-G) has the power to nominate ‘aldermen’ to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) without the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers from the Delhi Government. The bench of Justices P.S. Narasimha and P.V. Sanjay Kumar held that the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, (DMC Act) 1957 gives the Delhi L-G the ‘explicit’ power to nominate aldermen without any requirement to consult the Council of Ministers, and held that the nomination of 10 aldermen in January 2023 was a valid exercise of power.
In January, the Delhi L-G nominated 10 aldermen by invoking his powers under Section 3 of the DMC Act.