The Delhi High Court on Wednesday said a plea, seeking to increase the number of ministers in Delhi government from the existing council of seven, required consideration.

A bench of Chief Justice D K Upadhyaya and Justice Tushar Rao Gedela posed several questions to the counsel for the petitioner and posted the hearing on July 28.

A PIL said Delhi government has 38 portfolios and only seven ministers to run the government despite having 70 MLAs in the legislative assembly.

"This is by far the lowest number of ministers in any state – the second lowest being at least 12 ministers in the states of Goa and Sikkim with 40 and 32 MLAs, respectively. Delhi has a unique status amongst all the states and union territories," petitioner Aakash Goel said in his plea.

The plea, filed through advocate Kumar Utkarsh, also challenged Article 239AA of the Constitution which restricted the council of ministers in Delhi to just 10 per cent of the total members of the legislative assembly.

This limitation, the plea said, was arbitrary, discriminatory and violative of the basic structure of the Constitution, and particularly undermined the principles of federalism, democratic governance, and administrative efficiency.

The plea claimed Delhi was not similar to other union territories and by virtue of Article 239AA, it was accorded a "sui generis" (one of its kind) status, setting it apart from other union territories.

The bench observed Delhi couldn't be compared with other states as it held a "standalone" status with a special constitutional scheme and being governed differently.

"How can you compare Delhi with other states if the status of Delhi as a standalone state has been upheld? The way Delhi is governed under the constitutional scheme is different from the way other states are governed. Here there is some kind of sharing of powers between the Central government and the state government even on subjects which are otherwise exclusively on the state list. It is not there with other states," the bench said.

If this unique constitutional status of Delhi was accepted, how could the petitioner compare any constitutional arrangement here with that of the other states, it added.

The petition said Article 164(1A) was introduced, mandating that the total number of ministers, including the chief minister, in all states should not exceed 15 per cent of the total members of the respective legislative assembly.

Additionally, it was prescribed that no state shall have fewer than 12 ministers but this amendment inadvertently excluded Delhi, leading to an inconsistency in the governance framework, it argued.

"The Union of India's inaction in amending Article 239AA to bring it in line with Article 164(1A) has deprived the residents of Delhi of effective and proportional governance, violating their right to equality," the plea said.

The inadequate number of ministers, it added, resulted in administrative bottlenecks, delays in policy implementation, inefficiencies in governance and an excessive burden on the existing ministers.