HC refuses to entertain PIL to merge NCR cities with Delhi

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The Delhi High Court on Thursday refused to entertain a public interest litigation seeking merger of Delhi's neighbouring cities like Meerut, Faridabad and Gurugram with the national capital. The plea said these cities are far away from their respective jurisdictional high courts and therefore should be made part of Delhi, reported PTI.

The petitioner also said a new high court should be established for Punjab in Jalandhar as the present high court in the union territory of Chandigarh was inconvenient to access for those residing in places like Amritsar. A bench headed by Acting Chief Justice Manmohan told the petitioner the reorganisation of the territories of states as well as establishment of high courts was not within the high court's domain.

"Why have you come to the court ? We are not the Parliament. Parliament does not work under my order. We don't reorganise the boundaries of states. We don't decide which high court will function from where. That is not our domain," the bench said, PTI report added.

The court observed the petition was filed in ignorance of Article 3 of the Constitution which deals with the procedure for formation of new states and alteration of areas, boundaries or names of existing states. The bench added that a bill to form or alter the boundaries of a state has to be introduced in Parliament on the recommendation of the President of India.

"Someone wants us to redraw the map. That's the only thing that is left," the court remarked on the petition.

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In a recent case before Delhi High court, On Monday the court permitted a class 10 girl student to sit for exams after she was stopped by the CBSE board for examinations on account of late submission of domicile certificate.

The petitioner was a private candidate undertaking Class X examinations conducted by the CBSE. CBSE's September 2023 notification governing such candidates, requires the domicile certificate, certifying that the student is a resident of Delhi, along with the application for appearing in the examination.

The candidate had applied for her domicile certificate after uploading her exam application, and had recieved it in January 2024. As the candidate could not upload it online, she physically submitted it to CBSE. The court also noted that the candidate was issued admit card and she appeared for first paper on February 21, but was stopped for second paper.

However, the court ordered that as the candidate was issued admit card, she should be allowed to appear for exams.

(With PTI and ANI inputs)