The Delhi high court on Friday sought the response of the state election commission to a plea challenging the earmarking of seats as reserved for the Scheduled Castes (SC) in the MCD elections to be held in April.

A bench of Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul and Justice Rajiv Shakdher issued a notice to the Delhi State Election Commission on a petition of BJP councillor from Kapashera, Anil Yadav, and advocate Kuldeep Singh, who sought the quashing of the January 27 notification reserving seats for the Scheduled Castes in the coming municipal elections.
The state election commission, which sought a week’s time to file its reply, was also directed not to issue any more notifications regarding the upcoming elections without informing the court.
The court, however, did not suspend the operation of the notification.
The petitioners contended that the notification is “arbitrary, malafide and without any logic” as the commission has reserved seats for SC candidates on the basis of the 2001 census and not the recent 2011 census. Arguing that there is no rational basis for earmarking seats as reserved for the SCs, advocates Shyam Sharma and O.P. Saxena, appearing for the petitioners, submitted that the commission must take into consideration the average population of the SCs in a ward on the basis of the latest 2011 census and not the 2001 census.
The election commission has “acted without any logic” in reserving the seats on the basis of 2001 census — reserving those seats where the SC population is only 12 per cent, and making those as general seats where the SC population is more than 40 per cent, they contended. The petition also stated that the very objective behind reserving seats is frustrated because the benefit will not reach those constituencies where the percentage of the Scheduled Castes population is higher as per 2011 census.