Supreme Court reserves judgement on pleas on Delhi-Centre power dispute

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Wednesday reserved its verdict on a batch of petitions on the issue whether the Lieutenant Governor or the Delhi government enjoyed supremacy in administration on day-to-day basis.

A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra reserved the judgment after hearing it for 15 days in over four weeks.

During the hearing on Wednesday, senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam in his rejoinder submissions told the bench that the chief minister and the council of ministers had the legislative power to make laws as well as the executive authority to enforce the enacted statutes.

“The Chief Minister heads the council of ministers to aid and advice the Lieutenant Governor,” Subramaniam said.

Another senior advocate Rajeev Dhavan said that Article 239AA (which deals with power and status of Delhi under the Constitution) and the GNCTD Act of 1991 made it clear that the LG was just a delegatee of the President and can only act on his own in case of an urgency.

“The Constitution has to be read as a whole to interpret the powers of the Lieutenant Governor and the fact cannot be ignored that Delhi has a democratic government chosen by the people,” he added.

Opposing Delhi government’s plea, the Centre had also said that the Delhi government cannot have exclusive executive powers as it would be against national interests. It also referred to the 1989 Balakrishnan Committee report that had dealt with reasons for not granting the status of a state to Delhi.