With President Droupadi Murmu giving assent to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) (Amendment) Act, 2023, last week after Parliament passed it following a contentious debate, a new chapter will begin in the way the Capital is governed.
Supporters of the amended law, like Desh Rattan Nigam (a lawyer and sympathiser of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh), believe the changes represent the “evolution” of Delhi in the constitutional scheme. Other political leaders feel the “emasculation” of an elected government is a sign of worse to come.
Chief Minister (CM) Arvind Kejriwal was the first to fire the salvo when he declared, “The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government at the Centre has insulted the vote and rights of the people of Delhi by passing an unconstitutional law in Parliament that enslaves the people of Delhi.”
He said now the Prime Minister will decide on the “transfer of peons in Delhi”.
“The only reason they have brought in this Bill is that in the past eight years, the work we have done by providing quality education, free electricity, and free water — they cannot do it,” he added.
What led to the change in law?
Earlier this year, the Supreme Court (SC) ruled that only Delhi’s elected government had authority over civil servants. The court also ruled that except for issues linked to land, police, and public order, the Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) has “no independent decision-making powers” under the Constitution.
To address this, the central government brought in an ordinance in May, which it went on to refine in the form of the GNCTD (Amendment) Bill.
The operational effect of the changed law is the creation of a National Capital Civil Services Authority (NCCSA), chaired by the CM (in this case, Kejriwal), and with two senior Delhi government bureaucrats as members. The authority will make decisions by majority, and the L-G is the final authority.
The NCCSA will oversee all transfers and postings of officials. The CM only has the power to approve the convening of the meeting of the services authority.
This means that unlike in the past, when an officer who did not agree with or endorse the decision of the elected government was transferred, now the L-G will have the power to prevent such transfers.
This will curtail the freedom of the elected government (which had few powers anyway, given the special status of Delhi as the national Capital) in introducing new governance initiatives, especially those that have fiscal implications.
For instance, signature schemes of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), like free rations delivered to the doorstep of low-income Delhi citizens, issues relating to encroachment and resettlement, policies relating to transport like free travel on buses run by the Delhi Transport Corporation, changes in water and power tariffs, policies affecting educational recruitment, and many others that the Delhi government introduced, were opposed by bureaucrats at various stages on the grounds that processes and rules did not permit freebies of this nature and would eventually affect the financial health of the Capital.
However, this was interpreted by the AAP as an obstacle designed by the BJP-headed central government.
The tussle assumed alarming proportions when in 2015, the citizens of Delhi woke up to a bitter confrontation between Kejriwal and then L-G Najeeb Jung over the appointment of Shakuntala Gamlin as the acting chief secretary (AAP would later go on to accuse her of being in league with private sector power companies); a 2018 assault on then chief secretary Anshu Prakash when he was summoned for a midnight meeting to discuss who would pay for the advertisements about the AAP government’s work (charges have since been framed against two Members of Legislative Assembly, Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal, for obstructing a public servant on duty, assaulting him, and voluntarily causing hurt to Prakash), and many other instances of clashes between the bureaucracy and the AAP government.
Some bureaucrats say AAP has only itself to blame for the central law.
“They seem to think that being an elected government gives them the right to push through decisions bypassing rules and processes, and everyone who opposes such policies is the enemy. When such confrontations occur, the first reaction of an officer is to appeal to the L-G and the Ministry of Home Affairs, which is the cadre-controlling authority for those posted in Delhi,” says a former chief secretary.
That pours oil on troubled waters.
Former Delhi chief secretary Shailaja Chandra says Delhi has a robust administrative system that will continue to function regardless of political run-ins between the elected government and the Centre, something that is not new.
“The Delhi government is backed by systems and processes, and normal, day-to-day work will continue even if there is no elected government, as has been the case in the past,” she says.
But others feel tensions between the Centre and Delhi will see citizens living in the Capital become collateral damage. Politically, the balance of advantage from the point of view of public perception is with the AAP.
The NCCSA is yet to hold its first meeting. At the top of the agenda is the appointment of the chairperson of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Authority, after the SC appointed an ad hoc head because the Centre and the Delhi government could not agree on an incumbent. This was originally within the remit of the Delhi government. Now it will be referred to the NCCSA. The appointment is crucial, for the regulatory body has the power to set electricity tariffs as well as decide terms and conditions governing the Delhi government’s payment of compensation to companies affected by power subsidies.
A decision on this is set to reveal new governance fault lines between the AAP government in Delhi and the BJP-led Union government.