In the ongoing war of letters between Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, the latter has cited lacunae with regard to the file pertaining to Swati Maliwal’s appointment as Delhi Commission for Women (DCW) chairperson and has asked for another file, with corrections, to be sent to him.
Writing back to Mr. Kejriwal, the LG on Friday said that “it needs rectifications as the notifications under Minister of Social Welfare and Women and Child Development mentions him as the ‘appropriate authority’ to take decision as ‘Government.”
“I find that the file has not been processed properly and it still contains notifications under which chairperson/members of DCW were appointed under your orders after the note of the Minister of Social Welfare & Women and Child Development wherein he mentions that he is the appropriate authority to take the decision as ‘Government’.”
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Mr. Jung wrote that “it isn’t only the DCW chairperson’s appointment which is in question. Even the files pertaining to conferment of statutory powers on officers, appointing officers on deputation or nominating Directors in discoms haven’t been put up before him.”
He said it was completely untrue that the office of the chairperson of the DCW had been locked or that the files had been taken away. Reminding the Chief Minister that his government had sent a similar proposal to him in January 2014, he said, “I wonder what prompted you to alter the established long-standing practice that is in accordance with law.”
He said Chief Minister’s open letter’s reference to Prime Minister Narendra Modi was ‘inappropriate’ and ‘deeply disappointing.’ The four-page missive from Mr. Jung comes a day after Mr. Kejriwal had shot off a scathing letter following the L-G’s decision to reject the appointment of DCW chairperson, accusing Mr. Jung of working at Mr. Modi’s behest and deriding his claim of his being the government in Delhi.
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Clarifying his side, Mr. Jung said that the Lieutenant Governor was the delegate of the President and the President /the Central Government acts through the Lieutenant Governor in Delhi. “By no stretch of imagination does this mean that the Government can function outside the domain defined in the Constitution, a document drafted by the best minds of our country. It simply means that Delhi, being not a State, is a Union Territory, and the Lieutenant Governor is a representative of the President of India, and indeed the Government of India.”