SC Constitution bench to hear Delhi CM-Centre row

New Delhi: The row between the Kejriwal government in Delhi and the Centre will be heard by a five-judge Constitution Bench of the apex court as important questions of law are to be decided in this case.

A Bench of Justices A.K. Sikri and R.K. Agrawal referred all the petitions filed by Delhi government challenging a Delhi high court judgment giving primacy to the lieutenant-governor  in all decisions pertaining to Delhi. The bench, which was in the midst of final hearing of the matter, referred the appeals to CHI J.S. Khehar for posting before a five-judge bench.

It was the complaint of Mr Kejirwal that the Union of India is encroaching on the powers of Delhi government in exercising executive power. He asserted that the Delhi government is not a subordinate department of the ministry of home affairs and that it is answerable to the people of Delhi. Pointing out that the administration had come to a standstill, it was argued that this court will have to decide on the jurisdictional issues.

If an elected government did not have control over the mechanism to weed out corruption through the Anti-Corruption Branch (ACB), then its functioning would be ridiculed by the people who had given it the mandate to govern for five years. It was a settled constitutional principle that the figurative head of a state, like governor or L-G, was bound by the decision of the council of ministers headed by the CM. But the HC chose to tread a new constitutional path and declared that the L-G had the discretion whether or not to heed the council of ministers.

On behalf of the Centre, it was submitted that the matter will have to be referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench as the issue has wider implications. It was pointed out that in view of the apex court’s ruling by nine judges in 1996, in the NDMC versus State of Punjab case, that Delhi is only a Union Territory and not a state.