The Supreme Court on Friday ruled that nominated members have no right to vote either in mayoral elections or polls to the standing committee of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi.

The order comes as a jolt to the BJP, whose insistence on such members’ right to vote had resulted in disruptions of the elections to the posts of mayor and deputy mayor and the standing committee of the MCD.

A bench Chief Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justices P.S. Narasimha and J.B. Pardiwala also directed that notification for the polls to elect the mayor, deputy mayor and the standing committee be issued within 24 hours, bringing the curtains down on the twomonth-long standoff between the AAP and the BJP.

After briefly hearing senior advocate A.M. Singhvi for the AAP, solicitor-general Tushar Mehta for the lieutenant governor and additional solicitor-general Sanjay Jain for the MCD, the court ruled that the 10 aldermen nominated by the LG cannot vote in the three elections.

The bench said keeping the post of mayor vacant in the national capital would send a wrong message.

“Notice for election of mayor and first meeting of the MCD shall be issued within 24 hours and notice shall fix date at which elections of Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Standing Committee members shall be held,” the bench said in its order.