Delhi-Centre tussle: SC to hear AAP govt’s plea on Monday

R Sedhuraman 

Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, July 1  

The Delhi government headed by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Friday approached the Supreme Court over its running feud with the Centre, pleading that the city administration had come to a standstill due to the constant bickering.

A Bench headed by Chief Justice TS Thakur agreed to hear the petition on an urgent basis on July 4, but refused to restrain the Delhi High Court from pronouncing judgments in related cases pending there.

Appearing for the Kejriwal government, senior advocate Indira Jaisingh said her client had filed an application in the HC pleading that only the SC had the power to hear cases involving Centre-state disputes and as such the HC should refuse to entertain such petitions.

Rejecting the objection, the HC went ahead with hearing arguments and reserved its judgment. Since the HC had no jurisdiction in these matters, it should be stopped from giving its ruling and hearing arguments, Jaisingh said.

The CJI Bench, which included Justices AM Khanwilkar and DY Chandrachud, said the Delhi government was free to raise the jurisdiction issue even after the HC had delivered the judgment. “Wait for the judgment. What is your problem? The pendency of your SLP will not prevent the HC from delivering its judgment,” it said, but nevertheless accepted the plea for a hearing on Monday.

The Delhi government has also filed an original suit in the SC in April this year, seeking adjudication of its disputes with the Centre under Article 131 of the Constitution.

The city government and the Centre have been at loggerheads over the appointment of bureaucrats, control of the Anti-Corruption Bureau and various other issues ever since the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) came to power in February 2015, trouncing both the BJP and the Congress in the assembly poll.