At a time when the Arvind Kejriwal government has sought clarity over the ratio of power between his Cabinet and the Centre in administering the national capital, the Supreme Court has observed that Union Territories, though Centrally administered, enjoy an independent identity.
“The administration of Union Territories is by the Central government but that does not mean the Union Territories become merged with the Central government. They are centrally administered but retain their independent entity,” a Bench of Justices Anil R. Dave and L. Nageswara Rao observed.
The apex court was interpreting Section 119 of the Delhi Municipal Corporation Act, which exempts properties of the Union from taxation.
The judgment, authored by Justice Rao, expressed doubts as to whether properties of a Union Territory can be treated as the assets of the Centre. “We entertained a doubt about the properties of Union Territories being treated as properties of the Union,” the apex court observed.
It has barely been a week since a Division Bench led by the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court, G. Rohini, cleared the air that Delhi is a Union Territory with the Lieutenant Governor as its administrator, and not a state.
The High Court had trimmed the Kejriwal Cabinet’s girth by quashing several notifications issued by it without consulting Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung. The court did all this by dismissing the Delhi government’s argument that the AAP-Centre tussle was a ‘classic’ federal dispute.
The 194-page judgment relegated the wrangle to the status of a mere political tug-of-war on ‘services’, matters over which the High Court has full jurisdiction to adjudicate under Article 226 of the Constitution. It observed that not every dispute between the Centre and a State government could be classified as a ‘federal dispute’.
In a recent hearing, the Supreme Court put on hold the hearing of an original suit filed by the AAP government, contending that the dispute between the AAP and the Centre was a federal dispute over the interpretation of Article 239AA (a special provision for the administration of Delhi and the separation of legislative and executive powers between the Centre and the State) in the Constitution. A Bench led by Justice A.K. Sikri made it amply clear to the Delhi government that it should first file its appeal against the High Court judgment.