New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday stated that the Lieutenant Governor (LG) does not have independent decision-making power in the capital city and the real power must lie with the elected government. This is a big win for Kejriwal’s AAP, which had been at loggerheads with the LG over power in Delhi.
“The Cabinet must convey all the decisions to the LG but his concurrence is not required in all matters,” said Chief Justice of India, Dipak Misra. The Court said, “The state should enjoy freedom from unsolicited interference and popular will cannot be allowed to lose its purpose,” and added that the LG must not be obstructionist.
In what appeared to be a caution for AAP’s nine-day protest in front of the LG’s home, the Court stated, “There is no room for absolutism and there is no room for anarchism also.”
This friction between the LG’s office and AAP led Delhi Government started when AAP won a landslide majority in the Delhi Assembly in February, 2015. The Centre had then directed that the service department would come under the purview of the Delhi Government. In addition to this, land, police and public order in Delhi fall under the Centre. This led to a rift between AAP and the then LG Najeeb Jung when AAP set up an inquiry against the alleged CNG and DDCA scams. The Kejriwal government also didn’t consult Jung in appointing bureaucrats, to which Jung reasserted that he was the sole authority to decide that.
