Lucknow,

24 May (HS): SP leader Lalit Kishore Tiwari was finally sworn in as a

corporator at the Lucknow Municipal Corporation on Sunday, only days after the

Allahabad High Court blocked Mayor Sushma Kharkwal's powers due to a five-month

delay in administering the oath. Mayor Sushma Kharkwal stated that the

oath-taking ceremony for Ward Number 73, Faizullaganj, was held today in

accordance with the High Court's directives. Explaining the delay, she stated,

Our programme was already fixed a month ago. Suddenly, on 'Bada

Mangal', I became unwell and was taken to Command Hospital. I was released from

the hospital last evening, and we delivered the oath to Lalit Kishore Tiwari

today. The controversy concerns the 2023 municipal election for Ward Number 73

in Faizullaganj.

In

the local elections, BJP candidate Pradeep Kumar Shukla beat SP candidate Lalit

Kishor Tiwari. Tiwari later claimed that the BJP candidate supplied misleading

information about his marital status in the affidavit for the nomination papers

and sought that his election be cancelled. In its ruling dated December 19,

2025, the court declared Tiwari, the runner-up, to be the elected councillor of

Ward 73. The case then moved from the High Court to the Supreme Court. Shukla

thereafter filed a special leave petition with the Supreme Court to dispute the

High Court ruling, but the plea was rejected on May 20 when his attorney

requested permission to withdraw.

A

bench comprising Justices Alok Mathur and SQH Rizvi issued the ruling after

hearing a plea submitted by Tiwari, who is also a High Court counsel and the

general secretary of the Oudh Bar Association. The High Court previously

ordered that if the oath was not given within a week, the mayor, district

magistrate, and municipal commissioner appear personally in court. During the

hearing, the bench was informed that the oath had not yet been given. Following

this, the court voiced its unhappiness and ordered that the mayor's

administrative and financial powers be suspended until compliance was met. The

case has been scheduled for another hearing on May 29.

Hindusthan Samachar / Abhishek Awasthi