The impasse between the Aam Aadmi Party government of Delhi and its bureaucrats over who controls matters of services continued on Thursday, with Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal warning officers of “serious consequences” if they continued to “defy” the Supreme Court’s judgment on Wednesday.
Not diluted: Jaitley
On the other hand, Union Minister Arun Jaitley said in a Facebook post that the court’s judgment on administrative supremacy in Delhi was one that neither added to the power of the State and the Central government nor diluted them.
A five-member Constitution Bench ruled that the Lieutenant Governor (LG) was bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers on all matters, except for three reserved subjects — land, police and public order. On May 21, 2015, the Union Ministry of Home Affairs added a fourth subject — services.
Sisodia’s directive
Hours after the judgment, Deputy Chief Minister and Services Department Minister in charge Manish Sisodia ordered the department to change the approving authority for transfer of officers from the LG and bureaucrats to the Chief Minister and Ministers.
The department refused, saying the Ministry’s notification had not been quashed and all matters would now be heard by another Bench of the Supreme Court.
On Thursday, Mr. Kejriwal wrote to LG Anil Baijal, asking him to support the implementation of the court’s order. He said Mr. Sisodia had recieved a note from Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash, saying that the officers could continue to follow the notification since it had not been quashed.
“I believe that would be wrong course of action. If the files related to “Services” are placed before Hon’ble LG and Hon’ble LG acts on them, it would clearly amount to contempt of Hon’ble Supreme Court in the light of the aforesaid judgment. (sic),” Mr. Kejriwal wrote to the LG.
Mr. Kejriwal added that though the notification had not been quashed, it had become “infructuous” in the light of Wednesday’s judgment. He informed the LG that the government would issue orders to “all functionaries” on the implementation of the judgment on Friday.
Later, in a tweet, Mr. Kejriwal said officers should “respect and obey” the judgment.
“...Open defiance of SC order shall invite serious consequences. It will be in noone’s interest (sic),” he said.
The Raj Niwas continued to maintain silence, not responding to requests for comment for the second day.
'A presumption'
In his post, Mr. Jaitley termed it a “presumption” by the Delhi government that the apex court’s judgment had given it administrative powers over Union Territory (UT) cadre officers, a presumption, he said, was “wholly erroneous”.
“It [the judgment] emphasises the importance of elected state government, but Delhi being a union territory makes its powers subservient to the Central government,” he said.
There are several issues that had directly not been commented upon, but by implication there was some indication of those issues, Mr Jaitley said, adding that unless issues of importance were flagged, discussed and a specific opinion was rendered, “none can assume that silence implies an opinion in favour of one or the other”.
There were two obvious indications, Mr Jaitley said, adding firstly that if Delhi had no police powers, it “cannot set up” an investigative agency to investigate crimes as had been done in the past.
“Secondly, the Supreme Court has held categorically that Delhi cannot compare itself on a par with other States and, therefore, any presumption that the administration of the UT cadre of services has been decided in favour of the Delhi government would be wholly erroneous,” he said.
“It has been specifically held by the Supreme Court that it is crystal clear that by no stretch of imagination, NCT of Delhi can be accorded the status of a State under the present constitutional scheme and the status of the Lieutenant Governor is not that of a governor of a state, rather he remains an administrator, in a limited sense, working with the designation of lieutenant governor,” he said.
The court, Mr Jaitley said, has “rightly observed that all the three institutions, the elected government, the LG and the Central government must work in harmony keeping the interest of the people and the national capital in mind.”
“Cooperation, operating in their respective constitutional space and not confrontation should be the objective,” he said.
