The Centre today told the Delhi High Court it was committed to uproot corruption and no one having vested interest has interfered with the functioning of Delhi's Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB), terming the city government's charges in this regard as "baseless".
In its reply filed before a bench of Justice V P Vaish, the Centre denied the AAP government charge that the appointment of M K Meena was made contrary to law and said it was well within the constitutional jurisdiction of Delhi's Lieutenant Governor (LG), as the ACB, which is a police station, fell under him as he was the administrator in charge of the police.
"It is denied that any illegal attempt has been made by the persons having vested interest to interfere with the functioning of the ACB and to prevent it from investigating acts of corruption and misuse/abuse of public office with the objective of shielding persons whose conduct was under investigation.
"It is stated that the respondent/government of India is committed to the administration of justice and for uprooting corruption in the most and efficient manner. The allegations made by the petitioner (Delhi government) are baseless," the Centre's reply said.
The response came on a petition filed by the AAP government challenging the appointment of ACB chief M K Meena by the LG and lodging of a case against him for not receiving a complaint against some DDA officials.
The Centre also denied the allegations by the AAP government that M K Meena did not recieve the complaint against these DDA officials.
"The Administrator of NCT of Delhi (LG) is the delegate of the union government for the subject of police. It is therefore submitted that the subject of 'Police', with its full amplitude, falls into the exlusive domain of Parliament or Union Government to be exercised by the office of the LG," it said.
The face-off between the LG and Kejriwal's government has resulted in the ACB now having two chiefs.
It all began on June 8, when Joint Commissioner Meena took charge of ACB after he was appointed by LG, superseding Additional Commissioner S S Yadav. Yadav had been hand-picked by Delhi government for the post.
