The AAP Government on Thursday came out strongly against the Delhi High Court ruling giving primacy to the lieutenant-Governor in the affairs of the administration and said they will move the Supreme Court for “justice”.
“We fully respect the Delhi High Court but we have a constitutional right to disagree with their verdict and will approach the Supreme Court,” said Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia.
“We will apprise the Supreme Court that the High Court ruling has put a question mark on our democracy,” said Sisodia, speaking in the absence of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal who is away attending a meditation course in Himachal Pradesh.
“The verdict says the l-G is not bound the advice of the Council of Ministers,” the AAP leader said. “If that’s so, why were elections conducted thenIJ”
“There was a “big difference” between any other Union Territory and the national Capital and alleged that on the “pretext of rules”, various decisions aimed at curbing corruption have been stalled,” Sisodia added.
Addressing a Press conference, Sisodia said Delhi is a special case as it is both a Union Territory and has its own legislature also. “The High Court says Delhi is merely an Union Territory. If as per Constitution Delhi is only an UT, then why was it amended to make Delhi an UT with legislature.
“If Delhi was to be run by the lt Governor, then why was the Constitution amended to have State Assembly. Why provision was made to have an elected Government. We were targeted as we tried to rid the city of corruption,” he said.
“People sent us to power to control corruption in power distribution companies, to check commission-system in transfer posting of officials…Without any power, how can we meet the demand of people of Delhi.”
Sisodia said people of Delhi had brought the AAP to power with a historic mandate hoping that corruption will “end” in all spheres of governance and when AAP started to fulfil people’s aspirations, the efforts to curtail “rights of a democratically elected Government” had started. “When we started fixing the issue of corruption, caught corrupt policemen, the crisis began there. They felt if the Government continues to work like this, the business of transfer-postings will shut down and corruption will end. They could not digest it and started curtailing rights of a democratically elected Government.
“The Anti-Corruption Branch was part of the Delhi Government since 1993. But the day the ACB caught a policeman accepting bribe, it was brought under the Centre. The services department too was taken away from the Delhi Government,” Sisodia said.
Targeting Jung, Sisodia said Kejriwal Government was consistently prevented by the l-G and the Centre from taking any action against corruption since it was formed. “They wanted a Government in Delhi, which cannot take action in cases of corruption, compensate farmers, transfer officials. “This decision of the High Court should be seen in this background. The Government had approached the court after it was stopped from doing all these works,” he said