Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal at an event in New Delhi. (file photo)
Despite a five-judge Constitution Bench ruling that the Lieutenant Governor in Delhi has no independent power to take decisions, the Delhi government Wednesday informed the Supreme Court that its functioning remains “completely paralysed” and its hands tied on matters regarding transfer and posting of officers.
The matter was heard by a Bench of Justices A K Sikri and Navin Sinha. The court said it will hear the matter on July 26 since it is not a regular bench.
“Functioning of the government is completely paralysed. We cannot post officers, we cannot transfer officers despite the recent constitution bench verdict which has explained every aspect. These issues need to be adjudicated at the earliest,” said senior advocate P Chidambaram, appearing for the Delhi government.
Senior advocate Indira Jaising, who also appeared for the Delhi government, said officers are not willing to file an affidavit on this matter and Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia had therefore filed the affidavit.
“I just wanted to clarify the situation,” Jaising said.
A five-judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Dipak Misra recently laid down broad parameters for the governance of the national capital, which has witnessed a power struggle between the Centre and Delhi government since the Aam Aadmi Party came to power in 2014.
The bench had clarified that issues regarding various notifications issued by the Delhi government in the exercise of its administrative and legislative powers would be dealt with separately by an appropriate smaller bench.
with PTI inputs