Delhi High Court junks two petitions against Lieutenant-Governor’s powers

The Delhi high court on Thursday dismissed two petitions challenging the notifications issued by the Centre on powers of the lieutenant-governor (LG) in appointing bureaucrats in the national capital and the jurisdiction of Delhi government’s anti-corruption branch (ACB).

A bench of justices Badar Durrez Ahmed and Ashutosh Kumar referred to the August 4 judgment passed by a division bench of the high court and said these issue have already been dealt with in the verdict.

“It is, therefore, clear that the arguments sought to be raised before us was also raised before the division bench 1 (which had delivered the August 4 judgement).... And the said arguments were rejected. The division bench has clearly held that directions in the said notifications (issued by the Centre) were neither illegal nor unconstitutional,” the bench said.

The petitions had challenged the notifications issued by the ministry of home affairs on May 21 last year and July 23, 2014, empowering the L-G to exercise powers in respect of matters connected with services and directing the ACB not to take cognisance of offences against officials and employees of the Central government.

During the hearing, additional solicitor-general Maninder Singh said the issues raised in the two petitions have already been dealt with in the August 4 judgment and the matter is now pending before the Supreme Court.