SANJAY KISHAN KAUL, J

1. The notifications issued reserving seats for Scheduled Castes (for short ‘SC’) candidates in the impending elections to the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (for short ‘MCD’) has given rise to the present batch of writ petitions by prospective candidates. The changes effected in pursuance of the notification in the wards of the Corporations of which elections are to be held has resulted in the grievance. One set of petitions only seek to impugn the notification dated 27.1.2012 reserving the wards for the SC and for women (both SC and General category) while the other set of petitions also seek to lay a further challenge to the delegation of powers by the Department of Urban Development, Government of NCT of Delhi (for short ‘GNCTD’) to the State Election Commission (for short ‘SEC’) vide notification dated 24.1.2012 to carry out the exercise of identifying the reserved wards. We may notice that though earlier there was one Delhi Municipal Corporation, now there will be three Municipal Corporations in the NCT of Delhi in pursuance of a notification dated 27.1.2012 – North Delhi, South Delhi and East Delhi.

2. The Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, 1957