Bombay High Court judge Justice Ramesh D Dhanuka Wednesday recused himself from hearing a plea by a former BMC corporator challenging the ordinance promulgated by the current Maharashtra dispensation that reversed the MVA government’s decision on the delimitation of electoral wards of the Mumbai civic body.
After the plea came up for hearing before a division bench of Justice Dhanuka and Justice Kamal R Khata, the state government lawyer said that it was engaging advocate Chirag Shah to argue in the case who had also appeared for state in the Supreme Court in the same matter. Thereafter, Justice Dhanuka said that he had earlier worked with Shah and therefore he cannot hear the plea and recused himself from hearing the same. He said the plea should not be placed before a bench consisting of him.
The delimitation exercise during the MVA government, initiated last year, had increased the total electoral wards from 227 to 236. However, the August 8 ordinance decided to bring back the number of electoral wards from 236 to 227 again.
Pednekar, from the Uddhav Thackeray-led Shiv Sena faction, approached the High Court after the Supreme Court granted him the liberty to withdraw his plea and approach the Bombay High Court regarding the same. Pednekar, through senior advocate Aspi Chinoy and advocate Joel Carlos urged the high court that the ordinance be declared against the Constitution, and null and void; and pending hearing of his plea, sought a stay on the ordinance and urged that the State Election Commission (SEC) conduct the BMC elections based on delimitation conducted earlier, as per the Supreme Court’s orders on May 4 and July 20.
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Pednekar said even the high court in February this year had dismissed pleas against the delimitation initiated by the MVA government considering 236 wards, after which the SEC published final notification in the official gazette.
The MVA cabinet on November 10, 2021 had increased the number of BMC wards to 236 and issued a notification for the same on December 3, last year. The decision, however, was annulled soon after the change in the government through an impugned ordinance issued on August 8 this year.
The plea is likely to come up before a bench of Justice S V Gangapurwala who will hear BMC-related matters from next week.
Source: https://news.google.com/__i/rss/rd/articles/CBMibWh0dHBzOi8vaW5kaWFuZXhwcmVzcy5jb20vYXJ0aWNsZS9jaXRpZXMvbXVtYmFpL2JvbWJheS1oYy1ibWMtY29ycG9yYXRvcnMtcGxlYS1jaGFsbGVuZ2luZy1vcmRpbmFuY2UtODI3MTk1MC_SAQA?oc=5
