AAP  MP Raghav Chadha has written to Rajya Sabha Chairman Jagdeep Dhankhar on Sunday, urging him not to allow a bill that seeks to replace the Centre's ordinance on control over administrative services in Delhi to be introduced in the Upper House of Parliament.  In his letter to Dhankhar, Chadha termed the Bill "unconstitutional" and urged the Rajya Sabha chairman to direct the Bharatiya Janata Party-led Centre to withdraw it and "save the Constitution".

The bill seeking to replace the ordinance is likely to be introduced by the Centre in Parliament during the ongoing Monsoon session.

"A Constitution bench of the Supreme Court unanimously held that as a matter of constitutional requirement, the civil servants serving in the Government of NCT of Delhi are answerable to the elected arm of the government i.E. The elected council of ministers presided over by the chief minister," Chadha said in his letter to Dhankhar.

This link of accountability was held to be "crucial" to a democratic and popularly accountable model of government, he added.

However, in one single stroke, the ordinance has undone this model by seizing this control again from the duly elected government of Delhi and vesting it in the hands of the LG, the Rajya Sabha MP said.

"The ordinance's design is evident i.E. To strip the Government of NCT of Delhi down to only its elected arm -- enjoying the mandate of the people of Delhi, but bereft of the governing apparatus necessary for meeting that mandate," he alleged.

This has left the Delhi government "in a crisis of administration, put day-to-day governance in jeopardy and led the civil service to stall, disobey and contradict the elected government's orders," Chadha claimed.

Terming the ordinance "blatantly unconstitutional", he contended that the Bill seeking to replace it is "impermissible" on the face of it as by seeking to take away the control over services from the Delhi government, contrary to the apex court's decision, the ordinance has lost its legal validity. No law can be made to nullify the court's decision without changing the basis of that decision, Chadha argued.

"The ordinance does not change the basis of the Supreme Court's decision, which is the Constitution itself," he said.

Chadha noted that Article 239AA(7)(a) of the Constitution empowers Parliament to frame a law to "give effect to" or "supplement" the provisions contained in Article 239AA.

"In conclusion, any law which the Parliament may make needs to supplement the provisions of Article 239AA and for only matters incidental or consequential to those provisions. Therefore, the proposed Bill which contains provisions contrary to the provisions of Article 239AA is not a valid exercise of the Parliament's legislative competence," the AAP leader said.

Criticising the AAP, Delhi BJP president Virendra Sachdeva said that Delhi has three Rajya Sabha MPs but  the letter has been written by a Rajya Sabha MP from Punjab.  Sachdeva has said that having failed to defeat the Bill through political numbers or through a Court Stay the AAP leader has today written to the Rajya Sabha Chairman whose directive to shift to proper accommodation was defied by him a couple of months ago.

The Leader of Opposition in Delhi Assembly Ramvir Singh Bidhuri said that Vice President has already made it clear that it is permissible to lay the bill. "The letter is a political drama. His boss Arvind Kejriwal has told him to write a letter on Ordinance," he said. "Kejriwal is cribbing that services matter should be under the Delhi government as officials or bureaucrats do not listen to the elected government.  The point is why bureaucrats allowed to happen excise scam, renovation scam  and advertisement scams," he added.aca