Aurangabad, May 3:
The hearing on the petition filed in the Supreme Court challenging the Aurangabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) election process will now be held on July 1. The last hearing was held before the registrar on April 20 and he had granted a last chance to the state government, sugar commissioner, and the district collector to submit their affidavits in four weeks.
It may be noted that the AMC was to witness its elections in April 2020. Hence the state election commission (SEC) had declared reservation of wards for the AMC elections in January 2020. The reservation was declared on the basis of newly delimited wards okayed by the SEC. However, the reservation process was challenged by former corporator Sameer Rajurkar and others through filing a petition in the Supreme Court. The petition is pending for the past many months. Hence it has not been put up before the SC for hearing.
The AMC's legal advisor Aparna Thete confirmed the last chance given by the registrar during the last hearing and the next hearing of the petition will be held on July 1.
It may be noted that the petitioner/s claimed that the delimitation of wards has been done wrong. The whole ward formation process was done with an aim to provide convenience to a few selected persons. They also raised an objection to the declaration of reservation of wards. They also pinpointed severe violation of SEC parameters in the election process.