Agencies
New Delhi, May 25
[dropcap]A[/dropcap]mid growing hostility between the Central and Delhi governments over powers in the national capital, the Delhi High Court on Monday said the Lt Governor must act on the ‘aid and advice of the council of ministers’ and that ‘mandate of the people must be respected by the Lt governor in respect of matters which fall within the domain of the Legislative assembly.’The HC’s observations come at a time when the AAP government in Delhi is considering challenging the Union Home Ministry’s recent notification in court. The MHA had issued a notification underlining that the Lt Governor is the ‘administrative head’ of Delhi and ‘services’ were out of the purview of the government.
The observations were made by Justice Vipin Sanghi while dismissing the bail application filed by Delhi police head constable Anil Kumar arrested earlier this month on charges of bribery by the Delhi Anti-Corruption Branch. The arrest had led to a spat between the center and state governments regarding the jurisdiction of the ACB.
The MHA notification even reiterated that the Delhi government did not have jurisdiction to arrest central government employees. However, while dismissing the bail plea, the HC observed that the 2014 central government notification of restricting the jurisdiction of the ACB was ‘suspect.’
The HC observed, “The LG must act on aid and advice of Council of Ministers in respect of matters which fall within legislative competence of the Delhi assembly. The NCT of Delhi shall not be administered by the President through the Lieutenant Governor in respect of matters over which the Legislative assembly of the NCT has authority to make laws.”
Sources in the Delhi government were quick to laud the HC. “This is a victory for the people of Delhi. The rights if an elected government were being curtailed,” a senior official said. “This Position emerges from the constitutional scheme contained in articles 239 and 239AA read with sections 41-44 of the GNCTD Act, 1991. The mandate of the people, with whom sovereign power resides, must be respected by the LG in respect of matters which fall within the domain of the Legislative assembly, provided there is no other constitutional or legal fetter,” the HC observed.
“Union government could not have issued the notification of 23/07/2014 thereby seeking to restrict the executive authority of the GNCTD acting through its ACB to act on complaints under the Prevention of Corruption Act only in respect of officers and employees of the GNCTD. By an executive fiat, the Union government could not have exercised the executive power in respect of a matter falling within the legislative competence of the legislative assembly of the NCT, since the law made by parliament, namely the GNCTD act read with article 239AA put fetters on the executive authority of the President,” the HC said.
The bail application has also been dismissed by the court which observed that the accused Anil Kumar was posted as head constable at the Sonia Vihar police station and was in a position to “influence witnesses” if granted bail.
