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A face-off in the Supreme Court (SC) seems slated after Wednesday's developments in the weeks-long tussle between the Union government and its monitor for Delhi’s city government, the lieutenant governor, versus the Aam Aadmi Party-led elected administration.
The legislative assembly, where the AAP has 67 of the 70 seats, passed a resolution against the Union home ministry’s notification which formally clips the authority of the chief minister-led government. And, on Wednesday, the ministry went to the SC with a petition challenging the recent ruling by a single judge of the high court (HC) here which had restored the probe authority of the city government’s anti-corruption branch (ACB).
Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal lashed at the Centre and the LG. He accused the former of “trying to shield corrupt officials” and said the LG was “dancing to the Centre's tune”. The Centre, he declared, was thwarting the Delhi government with an “experiment” to be replicated across the country and take it towards “dictatorship”.
The HC had on Monday termed as “suspect” the Centre's notification barring the Kejriwal government's ACB from proceeding against officers in criminal offences and held the LG couldn't act on his own discretion in the matter. The Assembly also passed a resolution for creation of a ‘state services cadre’ for the city. The resolution empowered the government “to bring a legislation for creation of a National Capital Territory Public Service”. At present, Delhi, being a Union Territory, has no separate service cadre of its own.
“Whatever is happening in Delhi is dangerous,” declared Kejriwal of the recent faceoff between the Centre-backed LG and his government. “This is the Delhi experiment of the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre. One by one, this experiment would be implemented in every non-BJP state. They want to take the country towards dictatorship. I appeal to all non-BJP chief ministers to come together and unite on this issue.”
Adding: “What’s next? A (Union) home ministry notification that I should wear a white shirt every Monday?” The CM told the Assembly, “This is not a Constitutional issue as the BJP president said yesterday. This is a political issue. The Centre is trying to fail the AAP government. We will continue our fight.” He even alleged that slums across Delhi were being demolished at the LG's instructions, so that people got agitated against the AAP government.
The resolutions passed by the assembly included one that allocation of work to officers was the prerogative of the government and only ‘service conditions’ was under the jurisdiction of the Centre. Thereby, it directed “officers and employees” to continue working on the directions of the Kejriwal government, without fear of being “victimised by any extraneous element, whatsoever”.
The overwhelming AAP representation spoke on similar lines. While Vijender Gupta, head of the three-man BJP representation in the assembly, accused the Delhi government of becoming arrogant.
ALL IN A DAY
- Delhi Assembly passes a resolution against the home ministry notification giving more power to L-G
- Home ministry goes to SC, challenging a HC ruling that restored the probe authority of the city government’s anti-corruption branch
- Kejriwal flays Centre, saying it is "trying to shield corrupt officials”. Also says L-G was “dancing to the Centre's tune”
