Supreme Court Raps Delhi Lt Gov Saxena, CM Kejriwal: ‘Rise Above Political Bickering’

Pics courtesy The Indian Express

New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday urged the Centre and Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal to “rise over political bickering” and resolve problems related to the national Capital.

Hearing the case related to the appointment of Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) chairperson, the top court advised the constitutional functionaries to sit to together.

“We don’t want to step into this… let both constitutional functionaries resolve this. Both of them (Lt Governor and Chief minister) should sit together and do the needful,” the court noted.

A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha and Manoj Misra asked Delhi Lt Governor VK Saxena and CM Kejriwal to take a decision on the matter and apprise the court about it by July 20.

“The two constitutional functionaries have to rise above political bickering and they should give a name for the DERC chairperson,” the bench said.

The bench also asked the Centre and state to “rise above the political arena” and decide on the DERC chairperson’s name.

The Delhi government had recommended Justice (retd) Sangeet Raj Lodha of Rajasthan High Court for the post. But Justice Umesh Kumar’s name was announced for appointment as DERC chairperson on June 21.

The Delhi government challenged Kumar’s appointment in Supreme Court, following which the court stated that Lt Gov. Saxena should not request Kejriwal to administer the oath to Justice Kumar as the appointment stood deferred.

The Supreme Court said it will examine the constitutional validity of the Central government’s recent ordinance governing appointments.