New Delhi: A special session of the Delhi assembly on Tuesday moved a resolution declaring a home ministry notification seeking to curtail the rights of the Delhi government as unconstitutional and invalid.
The two-day session comes in the middle of a tussle between the Delhi government and the lieutenant governor (LG) over jurisdiction in the city-state.
The resolution moved by Somnath Bharti, member of the legislative assembly (MLA) from Malviya Nagar constituency, will be taken up for discussion by the house on Wednesday.
The resolution said, “The ministry of home affairs has passed this notification without any jurisdiction to do so. Therefore, it is an illegal and invalid exercise of powers on the part of the ministry of home affairs.”
The resolution adds that it is contrary to and violates the provisions of the Constitution of India.
Calling the notification an encroachment on the rights of the state assembly, the resolution said, “This house finds this act of the ministry of home affairs as an attempt on the part of the central government, to encroach upon the legislative powers of this august house conferred by the constitution, in a completely unconstitutional and illegal manner, by bypassing Parliament and thereby even grabbing the powers of Parliament itself.”
Earlier in the day, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia moved a resolution to discuss the notification that gives the LG the right to take decisions on the transfer of senior bureaucrats and restricts the Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) from taking cognizance of offences against central government officials. “Tomorrow the central government can say that you don’t have control over the sources of water so you can’t supply water to the city. The issuance of the notification is an insult to the biggest mandate of Delhi’s people.”
“Delhi was plagued by corruption. People have given us a massive mandate to run the government. This government has taken corruption head on and achieved unprecedented success. The centre is trying to thwart Delhi government’s attempts. The ACB has done unprecedented work in the last 100 days despite several odds,” he added.
The resolution followed legal support for the state government.
The Delhi high court on Monday ruled that issuing such a notification was beyond the powers of the central government and that the ACB can investigate Delhi Police personnel, who are employees of the central government.
Ahead of the assembly session Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and Sisodia called on the LG.
Addressing the house, Adarsh Shastri, MLA from Dwarka constituency, asked for an amendment in the Constitution to give state assemblies the power to impeach LGs and governors—similar to Parliament’s right with regard to the President.
“I have demanded that the assembly should pass this resolution, asking Parliament to amend section 155 and 156 of the constitution so that every state legislature has the right to impeach the LG/Governor,” Shastri said.
Meanwhile, O.P. Sharma, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MLA from Vishwas Nagar constituency, had to be escorted out of the assembly by marshals after he accused ruling Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAs of using unparliamentary language against the LG and Prime Minister Narendra Modi. He also made remarks against the Speaker, Ram Niwas Goel.
Accusing AAP of having different criteria to gauge transparency, Delhi Congress chief Ajay Maken said, “The AAP-led government held an open cabinet meeting yesterday at Connaught Place patting itself on transparency. Today, we want to ask you… you pat yourself during a cabinet meeting in front of all, but during (AAP’s) national council meeting you insulted (AAP rebels) Anant Kumar, Yogendra Yadav and threw them out. You did not allow people to enter, did not allow anyone to take a phone along with them. So, your criteria for yourself is one and for others it is different,” Maken said.
The Congress party also released a booklet on what it called the failures of the AAP government.
