IAS officers posted in NCT can be transferred and posted by Delhi govt: AAP govt tells SC

The Delhi government today told the Supreme Court that it has power to transfer and post IAS officers allocated to it within the National Capital Territory as they belong to the joint cadre.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government also put forth its claim on the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) saying the Constitution and Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) provides that the state government has executive powers.

A bench of justices A K Sikri and Ashok Bhushan was told by senior advocate P Chidambaram that IAS officers are allocated to the state and it becomes their cadre.

"As per cadre rules for the IAS officers, who are allocated state cadre, the state government will have control over them. In case of joint cadre, both the Centre and the state government have control over. The Centre can transfer and post the officials to other state, but within the territory of the state, the state government can transfer and post the official," Chidambaram said.

Reading from the cadre rules, he said that in other words, an official once allotted joint cadre, the transfer and posting within the state will be done by the state government concerned.

Senior advocate Shekhar Naphade, appearing for Delhi government, said that two notifications of the Centre with regard to ACB are under challenge by which they have excluded central government employees from coming under the jurisdiction of corruption bureau.

"As per the provisions of Constitution and CrPC, the state government is responsible for the law and order and though Delhi government is a state government in limited sense, it still has executive powers. It has power to declare any place or post as police station," he said.

The bench said, "this is an interesting situation rather anomalous situation. They (Centre) have control over police and you have control over police station".

Naphade said that police power comes from CrPC and the notification of Centre with regard to powers of ACB is without any clarity in law.

"The Delhi high court judgement says that police falls under exclusive jurisdiction of Centre and therefore the notification of the Centre under challenge is just a direction to ACB. This is contradictory as the verdict allowed appointment of public prosecutors by the elected government which is done under CrPC," he said.

The hearing remained inconclusive and would continue on September 5.

Yesterday, the Delhi government had told the apex court that officers of the DANICS cadres posted in the national capital are controlled by it and has powers to order their transfer and postings.

It had said that the DANICS officers are not controlled by the Centre through the Lieutenant Governor (LG) as long as they are posted in the national capital.

It had said DANICS and DANIPS cadre officers are also posted in the Union Territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands, but when they are working in the national capital, they will be under the Delhi government's control.

On July 18, the AAP government had told the apex court that its functioning is "completely paralysed" and it cannot order transfer or posting of officers despite the recent Constitution bench verdict on the national capital's administration.

"Functioning of the government is completely paralysed. We cannot post officers, we cannot transfer officers despite the recent constitution bench verdict which has explained every aspect. These issues needs to be adjudicated at the earliest," Chidambaram, appearing for the Delhi government, had said.

A five-judge Constitution Bench had on July 4 laid down broad parameters for the governance of the national capital, which has witnessed a power struggle between the Centre and the Delhi government since the AAP came to power in 2014.

The bench had clarified that issues regarding various notifications issued by the Delhi government in exercise of its administrative and legislative powers would be dealt with separately by an appropriate smaller bench.

The five-judge bench had said in a landmark verdict unanimously held that Delhi cannot be accorded the status of a state but clipped the powers of the LG, saying he has no "independent decision making power" and has to act on the aid and advice of the elected government.

Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had been at loggerheads with incumbent LG Anil Baijal and his predecessor Najeeb Jung. Kejriwal had accused both of them of preventing the functioning of his government at the behest of the Centre.