From Our Bureau
NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Tuesday directed the Centre to find a solution to stop the political parties from giving freebies during elections and fixed further hearing on August 3.
A Bench headed by Chief Justice N V Ramana heard a PIL by Delhi BJP advocate Ashwini Upadhyay for seizure of the symbol of the parties promising “irrational freebies” before the polls while another Bench headed by Justice A M Khanwilkar heard a separate petition of the Aam Aadmi Party against the postponement of Delhi municipal polls on the grounds of delimitation of wards just started.
The AAP says the unification of three MCDs and the consequential delimitation exercise cannot be a valid ground to defer the civic polls. The announcement of the election schedule for the three Delhi civic bodies was deferred in March this year and later, the Centre brought a Bill for the unification of MCDs.
The Bench of Justices Khanwilkar, Abhay S Oka and Jamshed B Pardiwala fixed the hearing on Thursday, just a day before Justice Khanwilkar retires.
A Bench of Chief Justice of India N V Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli had issued notices to the Centre and the Election Commission on Upadhyay’s PIL.
