MLAs nomination to municipal bodies is Speaker's discretion: HC told

New Delhi: Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel has contended in the Delhi High Court that he has the discretion to appoint MLAs to the municipal corporations and it was not mandatory to rotate or replace them each year.

The submission, before a bench of Justices G S Sistani and Jyoti Singh, was made in response to a plea by BJP leader Vijender Gupta challenging the appointment of same 13 AAP MLAs as councillors to the corporations each year. The court Friday listed the matter for further hearing on November 22.

Gupta, in his plea filed through advocate Ashwani Kumar Dubey, has alleged that since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) formed the government in February 2015, the same group of party legislators have been repeatedly nominated as councillors in municipal corporations in violation of laid down norms.