HC seeks state govt’s reply to plea challenging ordinance to increase BMC’s ward strength

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Plea challenges state's ordinance issued on November 30, amending the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act to increase number of municipal wards in the city from 227 to 236 The Bombay High Court on Thursday issued notice to the Maharashtra government seeking its reply on a writ petition challenging a recent ordinance approved by the state cabinet to increase the ward strength of the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) ahead of the civic polls scheduled early next year.

A bench of Justice Amjad Sayed and Justice Abhay Ahuja directed the state government to file a short affidavit in response to the plea by December 21. The bench also issued a notice to the Election Commission of India, which is a respondent party besides the state government in the plea filed by BJP corporator Abhijit Samant and one Rajeshree Shirwadkar.

The plea challenges the state's ordinance issued on November 30 this year, amending the Mumbai Municipal Corporation Act to increase the number of municipal wards in the city from 227 to 236. The plea claimed that the said ordinance was mala fide, illegal and arbitrary, and was issued ahead of the BMC elections scheduled for next year to benefit a certain political party.

While the state government has maintained that the said change was brought about to ensure that the total number of seats in various municipal corporations and municipal councils were commensurate with the population increase in the respective areas, the plea claims that the state did not have requisite data to make the change. The petitioners informed the High Court that the state government had used data of the 2011 census to increase the number of municipal wards in the city.

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