The Delhi Assembly has the power to legislate on matters related to a State Public Service Commission, the AAP said on Wednesday, in response to criticism that its resolution in the House on Monday to set up such a commission was out of the Assembly’s purview.
AAP spokesperson and Greater Kailash MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj, who had moved the resolution, said in a statement that “a wrong impression was being deliberately spread” that because Delhi is a Union Territory, it could not create or have a public service commission.
He said the Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court had ruled on July 4 that apart from land, public order and police, which were under the Lieutenant-Governor, rest of the subjects were within the rights of the State Assembly to legislate upon and the State government to execute.
“The entry of ‘services’, which enables a government to constitute Public Service Commission and to establish different public services, is enumerated at entry 41 of the State List. This is not one of the excluded entries,” he said.
He added that not only could the Assembly give direction to the State government to set up a public service commission, it could also legislate on all related matters.
