AAP in SC: Elected govt can’t be subservient to Lt-Guv

R Sedhuraman

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, September 9

The Supreme Court today sought the Centre’s response in six weeks to Arvind Kejriwal government’s appeal against being reduced to a “recommendatory body” of Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) Najeeb Jung by the Delhi High Court on August 4.

A Bench comprising Justices AK Sikri and NV Ramana, however, refused to stay the HC verdict holding that Delhi continued to be a Union Territory (UT) and its administrative head was the L-G who was not bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers of the city government.

The Bench refused to restrain the L-G from going ahead with an inquiry into various decisions taken by the Kejriwal government even as senior advocate Gopal Subramanium found fault with the probe. The apex court said there was no need for a stay on the HC ruling or the L-G’s move as it would hear the AAP government’s petitions on a priority basis. 

Posting the cases for a final hearing on November 15, it granted two weeks to the city government to file its reply to the Centre’s response.

Senior advocate KK Venugopal began the arguments, contending that the High Court had reduced a popularly elected government as an adjunct of the L-G and this was against the spirit of democracy. The High Court ruling would not only make the AAP government non-functional, but its successors as well.

Appearing for the Centre, Attorney General Mukul Rohtagi pleaded with the Bench against entertaining the appeals. As a nine-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court in the New Delhi Municipal Corporation (NDMC) versus State of Punjab case (1996), has already ruled that Delhi is a UT, not a state, the Bench said it would consider referring the cases to a larger Bench. 

The AG argued that Delhi’s status as a UT was clear under Articles 239 (dealing with administration of UTs) and 366 (collection of taxes) besides the First Schedule that explained the character of every state and UT.

Rohatgi also found fault with Deputy CM Manish Sisodia filing the appeals while the law mandated that this could be done only by bureaucrats.  Venugopal, however, pleaded that Sisodia had to move the apex court as no Secretary was ready to sign the plea in the absence of L-G’s nod. “Access to justice could not be stopped and doing so was against legal jurisprudence,” he argued.

The AAP Government, having approached the Delhi High Court time and again on disputes with the L-G on important issues such as postings of bureaucrats, had filed seven appeals. The High Court heard all the petitions together and delivered its judgment.