{"id":180537,"date":"2022-04-21T20:51:22","date_gmt":"2022-04-21T15:21:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.forumias.com\/?p=180537"},"modified":"2022-04-21T20:51:22","modified_gmt":"2022-04-21T15:21:22","slug":"the-delhi-mca-act-denudes-the-spirit-of-federalism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-delhi-mca-act-denudes-the-spirit-of-federalism\/","title":{"rendered":"The Delhi MCA Act denudes the spirit of federalism\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"<p aria-level=\"1\"><\/p>\n<p><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">News: <\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Recently, <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act 2022<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> was passed by the parliament. <\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Subsequently, the <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">State Election Commission<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> of Delhi deferred the announcement\u202fof schedule for the elections to the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi after the proposed unification of the three municipal corporations.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:150,&quot;335559740&quot;:390}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What have been the arguments of the Central government about the validity of the act?<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:150,&quot;335559740&quot;:390}\"><br \/>\n<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The MHA has stated that the <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Article 239AA(3)(b)<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> empowers the parliament to make laws for the State of Delhi \u201con any matter\u201d.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:150,&quot;335559740&quot;:390}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h5><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">What are some associated concerns?<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:150,&quot;335559740&quot;:390}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Central government<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> has conferred upon itself various <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">crucial powers<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. It assumed control over the <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Municipal Corporation of Delhi<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> from the State government. For example, the Centre is now empowered to determine the number of wards, extent of each ward, reservation of seats, number of seats of the Corporation, etc.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:150,&quot;335559740&quot;:390}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Central government has taken over powers from the State to decide on matters such as \u2018<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">salary and allowances<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, leave of absence of the Commissioner, the sanctioning of consolidation of loans by a corporation, and sanctioning suits for compensation against the Commissioner for the loss or waste or misapplication of municipal fund or property\u2019.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:150,&quot;335559740&quot;:390}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">In 2011, the trifurcation of the <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Delhi Municipal Corporation<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> was done after much deliberation and discussion at various levels. For example, <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">1987 Balakrishnan Committee Report<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">, and the <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">2001 Virendra Prakash Committee<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> Report proposed the slit-up. Thereafter, it went through a number of consultations. However, the decision to reunify has been done<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> without any study or consultation<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> with the Delhi government.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:150,&quot;335559740&quot;:390}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The Centre\u2019s argument of using <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Article 239AA<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> does not hold ground. The <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Part IXA of the Constitution <\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">states that the State Legislature is empowered to make laws concerning representation to the municipalities. And, Article 239AA cannot override the general law related to municipalities mentioned in Part IXA of the constitution.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:150,&quot;335559740&quot;:390}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><strong>&#8211;<\/strong> Further, Article 239AA was added by the <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Sixty Ninth Amendment Act of 1991<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. However, Part IXA of the Constitution was inserted into the Constitution later on through the <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Seventy-Fourth Constitutional Amendment Act of 1992<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:150,&quot;335559740&quot;:390}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Recently, the Supreme Court of India in the famous\u202f<\/span><b><i><span data-contrast=\"auto\">State of NCT of Delhi vs Union of India<\/span><\/i><\/b><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">\u202fjudgment<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> (2018) finally determined the scope of the <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">Article 239AA<\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">. The Court ruled in favour of a <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">balanced federal structure. <\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">It mandated that the Union does not usurp all powers and the States should enjoy freedom without any unsolicited interference from the Central Government with respect to matters which exclusively fall within the domain of state government.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:150,&quot;335559740&quot;:390}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The MCD Act 2022 will lead to <\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">litigation <\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">on the aspect of a sharing of powers between the State of NCTD and the Central government.\u00a0<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:150,&quot;335559740&quot;:390}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\">The act strikes a blow against<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> federalism <\/span><\/b><span data-contrast=\"auto\">and the celebrated<\/span><b><span data-contrast=\"auto\"> Indian model of decentralisation.<\/span><\/b><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;134233117&quot;:true,&quot;134233118&quot;:true,&quot;201341983&quot;:2,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559739&quot;:150,&quot;335559740&quot;:390}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><strong>Source<\/strong>: The post is based on an article \u201c<strong>The Delhi MCA Act denudes the spirit of federalism<\/strong>\u201d published in <strong>The Hindu<\/strong> on<strong> 21<\/strong><\/span><strong>st<\/strong><span data-contrast=\"auto\"><strong> April 2022<\/strong>.<\/span><span data-ccp-props=\"{&quot;201341983&quot;:0,&quot;335551550&quot;:6,&quot;335551620&quot;:6,&quot;335559740&quot;:259}\">\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>News: Recently, The Delhi Municipal Corporation (Amendment) Act 2022 was passed by the parliament. Subsequently, the State Election Commission of Delhi deferred the announcement\u202fof schedule for the elections to the three Municipal Corporations of Delhi after the proposed unification of the three municipal corporations.\u00a0 What have been the arguments of the Central government about the&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/the-delhi-mca-act-denudes-the-spirit-of-federalism\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">The Delhi MCA Act denudes the spirit of federalism\u00a0<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10328,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1230,9],"tags":[212,10498],"class_list":["post-180537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-9-pm-daily-articles","category-public","tag-gs-paper-2","tag-the-hindu","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","views":{"total":0,"cached_at":"","cached_date":1704914438},"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10328"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=180537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/180537\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=180537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=180537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/forumias.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=180537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}