5-judge Constitution Bench starts hearing Delhi vs Centre power dispute

State list is like concurrent list for Delhi, observes CJI Chandrachud

The five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court, headed by the Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud, began hearing the dispute between the Delhi government and the Centre regarding the control of administrative services in the state on Tuesday.
 

Senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for the Delhi government, outlined some broad issues in the matter. “This is at its core not about the balance between Centre and Delhi. It’s about whether civil servants serving in the NCT are accountable through the government and through them the people who elected the Delhi government,” he said.
 

He said the exclusion of civil servants from the government negated the government. “Can you imagine a UT with a legislature, a government, but no civil services? Then we may as well not have created [Article] 239AA [of the Constitution].”
 

Article 239A of the Constitution talks about the creation of local legislatures or council of ministers or both for certain Union territories and 239AA talks about special provisions concerning Delhi.
 

The CJI, meanwhile, observed that in the case of the NCT, Parliament can enact on the state list and concurrent list but the Delhi assembly can enact on any aspect of the state. In that sense, the state list and concurrent list are both concurrent, he said.
 

“If Parliament is operating in the concurrent list, what is the power in NCT?” the CJI asked.
 

The application filed by the Centre said it was seeking reference of appeal to a larger Bench of the court for a holistic interpretation of Article 239AA of the Constitution, which was central to determining the issues involved.
 

It said that the interpretation of Article 239AA based upon the principle of representative governance missed a very fundamental fact. The question was not one of representative governance. It was the choice between the one representative government, the Union government, or another representative government, the government of UT, it said.
 

The other members of the five-judge Bench are justices M R Shah, Krishna Murari, Hima Kohli, and P S Narasimha.
 

The hearing will continue tomorrow.