Jung and Kejriwal battle over chief secretary appointment

The standoff between Delhi Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal took a turn for the worse on Friday. Jung appointed senior bureaucrat Shakuntala Gamlin as acting chief secretary of Delhi, rejecting reservations by the Kejriwal government, which termed the decision 'unconstitutional'.

Jung gave the additional charge of chief secretary to Gamlin, a 1984-batch Indian Administrative Service officer, hours after she wrote a scathing letter to the LG claiming she was pressurised by a bureaucrat in the chief minister's office not to be in the race for the post due to her alleged proximity to BSES power distribution companies. Delhi Chief Secretary K K Sharma has left for the US on a personal visit due to which the government had to appoint an acting chief secretary.

Jung said he 'regrets' that the Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, by protesting his decision to appoint Gamlin, has brought the name of a senior officer in public domain "in such a manner, that too a lady officer and one belonging to the North East." He said under Article 239 A of the Constitution, the Lt Governor is the representative of state authority in Delhi, and in appointment of a chief secretary, he is competent to designate the officiating chief secretary in consultation with the CM.

Jung said he approved Gamlin's name against the name proposed by the CM, as she was senior with a proven track record. He said the name proposed by the CM did not figure in the list of names submitted to him by the Services Department and that officer is yet to be given a posting by the Delhi government. He said there was nothing on the file submitted to the Lt Governor that indicated the government had anything against Gamlin.

The AAP government said the Lt Governor could not bypass the elected government and he acted against "the Constitution, GNCT of Delhi Act and the Transaction of Business Rules."

The government said it had certain reservations about the conduct of Gamlin because of which it was hesitant to give the additional charge to her. "She was perceived to be extremely close to electricity companies in Delhi and was lobbying for their interests within the government," it said.

In her letter to Jung, Gamlin accused Kejriwal's secretary Rajendra Kumar of making a telephone call asking her not to be in the race for the post. She also accused the Aam Aadmi Party government of casting aspersions on her integrity to service and levelling false charges.

Senior bureaucrats Naini Jayaseelan, an IAS officer of the 1980 batch, Arvind Ray and S P Singh were in race for the acting chief secretary post.

Friday's confrontation comes in the backdrop of a series of conflicts between the Lt Governor and the chief minister. Recently, Kejriwal issued directions to ministers and senior officials of the Delhi government not to send files pertaining to police, public order and land to Jung's office. Reacting strongly to the directive, Jung sought to stamp his authority by directing top officials to route all important files through him according to the Constitutional framework and laid-down procedures.

After the Lok Sabha elections, the AAP had accused Jung of acting at the behest of the Bharatiya Janata Party government at the Centre, when he did not heed Kejriwal's demand of dissolving the Assembly.