2022 Delhi Municipal Corporation election
Municipal elections in Delhi was planned to be held in April 2022 to elect 104 councillors of North Delhi Municipal Corporation, 104 councillors of South Delhi Municipal Corporation and 64 councillors of East Delhi Municipal Corporation. In March 2022, the state Election Commission indefinitely deferred the municipal elections that were scheduled to be held in April 2022. On 22 March, the Union Government approved a bill to merge the 3 municipal corporations back to a single body. The MCD was trifurcated in 2012. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal accused the BJP of using the unification as  an excuse to postpone the elections. Aam Aadmi Party moved the Supreme Court of India and sought that directions be given to the State election Commission to conduct a fair and speedy election without interference from the Union government. A petition was filed in the Delhi High Court by the Aam Aadmi Party MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj, in which he asked the High Court to direct the State Election Commission of Delhi to conduct MCD elections with Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) that were compatible with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). Background. The tenure of NDMC, SDMC and EDMC is scheduled  to end on 18 May 2022. The previous municipal elections were held in April 2017 to elect the councillors of the 3 municipal corporations. Events. The State Election Commission in Delhi had been preparing for the Delhi Municipal Elections had issued multiple notices, notifications and orders that had indicated that the election was planned to be conducted in April 2022. On March 9, 2022, the State Election Commission announced a press conference at 5 pm to declare the schedule of the Municipal elections to be conducted in April. After the announcement, the commission received an unofficial communication from the Lt . Governor of Delhi Anil Baijal that talked about plans of the union government to merge the three municipal bodies. No formal communication had been issued regarding the plans for merger nor any such agenda had been declared in the ongoing budget session of the parliament of India. After the communication by Baijal, the press conference to announce the election schedule was postponed indefinitely and the elections were deferred. Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal accused the BJP of using the unification as an excuse to postpone the elections. He stated, "Can they cancel civic polls citing this reason? If today they are  giving such reasons to stop a small election, tomorrow they will delay state and national elections too." Lawsuit to conduct the election. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) moved the Supreme Court and sought that directions be given to the State election Commission to conduct a fair and speedy election without interference from the Union government. The plea was filed by AAP leaders Ankush Narang and Manoj Kumar Tyagi. The plea asked that the election be conducted according to the planned schedule of the Election commission before the term of the Municipal corporations expire in May. The plea stated, "The elections  have been pushed in the eleventh hour solely on an informal intimation to the State Election Commission. The State Election Commission has been set up as an independent constitutional authority to insulate it from political caprices and whims so that it can conduct free, fair and timely elections. Such arbitrary and sudden change in an election schedule solely on the say of the government is a clear violation of the fundamental democratic tenet of impartial conduct of elections". The plea called the incident, "brazen influence of the Government of India over the State Election Commission and its flagrant meddling with  the conduct of Municipal Elections". The plea accused the Union government of infringing upon the independence of the election commission by being the only reason to delay the election. AAP called the indefinite deferral completely arbitrary and asked the court if elections with prepared schedule could be deferred with such unofficial communications "at the whim of the Central government". State Election Commission response. On 23 March, "Indian Express" cited unnamed sources and reported that the election commission had approached lawyers to advice it if the elections could take place amid the Union government's intention to unify the corporations. According  to the report, the lawyers had adviced the commission to wait until the ongoing parliament session ended. Accordingly the commission was reported to make a decision on the election in the second week of April. The report also mentioned that the reorganization of wards in Delhi may be possible and this may lead to a delay in the elections. Lawsuit demanding use of voting machine with paper trail. In March 2022, Aam Aadmi Party asked the authorities conducting elections to use the Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) that were compatible with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT). The State Election Commission  Delhi responded saying it had decided to hold the 2022 MCD Elections with second generation M-2 EVMs without VVPAT. A petition was filed in the Delhi High Court by the Aam Aadmi Party MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj, in which he asked the HC to direct the State Election Commission of Delhi to conduct MCD elections with Electronic Voting Machines (EVM) that were compatible with Voter Verifiable Paper Audit Trail (VVPAT) and not without them. His lawyers said that it was almost impossible to check the accuracy of the EVM and tampering could not be ruled out when the EVMs without VVPAT  machines were used. In the case "Subramanian Swamy vs Election Commission of India, (2013)", the Supreme Court of India had issued directions that recognized the use of a system of paper trail in the EVMs was an important requirement for a free and fair elections. The petition called the use of older second generation, M-2 EVMs by the state election commission as a contravention of the Supreme court direction, "manifestly wrong" and a "colourable exercise of power". AAP petitioned that the decision raised "genuine apprehension about the sanctity of the entire electoral process". The petition noted, "There is no Assembly  Election slated after 7th March 2022 anywhere in the country. As such there is no hassle for them to loan out these new generation EVMs, compatible to VVPAT, to the SEC Delhi for conducting the MCD Elections 2022" State Election Commission (SEC) stated that it was dependent on the Election Commission of India (ECI) for the supply of EVMs. ECI had given M2 EVMs without VVPAT to SEC. SEC said in the court that it had no objections in using EVM with VVPAT if the ECI provided it. The Election Commission of India opposed the plea in the court and  stated that it could not provide the EVM with VVPAT to the State Election commission as it used them for conducting election and could not allow use by agencies that it did not supervise. AAP said in court that EVMs procured by the SEC are not compatible with VVPAT and it asked for the disclosure of the number of VVPAT compatible machines available in India. HC asked the SEC to inform the court which of the procured EVMs were compatible with VVPAT. Ten day time was given to respond and the next hearing was scheduled for 29 April. 2022 Delhi