The Delhi government on Friday moved the Supreme Court against the Centre's ordinance over control of services in the national capital.
Earlier in the day, the AAP had announced to burn copies of the Centre's ordinance at the party office in central Delhi on July 3 but later the programme was cancelled. “AAP National Convener Arvind Kejriwal and the senior leadership of AAP will neither burn nor participate in the protests and agitations against the Delhi Ordinance on July 3 as proposed earlier since the matter is now sub-judice in the Supreme Court. July 3 program is cancelled,” the AAP said in a statement.
In its plea filed through advocate Shadan Farasat, the Delhi government has said that the ordinance, which came days after the apex court verdict, is a plain attempt to “override” the top court and the basic structure of the Constitution itself vide executive fiat.
Seeking quashing of the ordinance, the plea alleged that it is an “unconstitutional exercise of executive fiat” that violates the scheme of federal, democratic governance entrenched for the NCTD in Article 239AA and is manifestly arbitrary.
“Article 239AA of the Constitution is a sui generis provision in that it constitutionally entrenches for NCTD a Westminster-style democracy, to fulfill the popular, regional, and democratic aspirations of the people of Delhi. The impugned ordinance directly violates this scheme of federal, democratic governance incorporated in Article 239AA and, specifically, the principle of 'collective responsibility' incorporated in Article 239AA(6),” it said. The plea said the ordinance “completely sidelines” the elected government, that is, the GNCTD, from control over its civil service.
“The Impugned ordinance wrests control over civil servants serving in the Government of NCT of Delhi (GNCTD), from the GNCTD to the unelected Lieutenant Governor (LG). It does so without seeking to amend the Constitution of India, in particular Article 239AA of the Constitution, from which flows the substantive requirement that power and control in respect of Services be vested in the elected government,” it said.
“The plea said the ordinance, by seizing control over civil servants posted in the GNCTD and vesting it in the hands of the Union's nominee, in effect attempts to hand over the administration of the GNCTD to the Union of India.
“In doing so, the impugned ordinance erodes not only the premise of democratic governance but also the regional will of Delhi's electorate. The impugned ordinance violates Article 239AA on both counts,” it said.
“This attempt to withdraw and erode the democratic, federal voice guaranteed to the people of Delhi after over 30 years of its recognition, could not have been done via constitutional amendment, let alone through the impugned ordinance,” it said.
Earlier, addressing a press conference, AAP chief spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj has announced copies of the ordinance will be burned across the 70 assembly constituencies of the national capital. Dilip Pandey, Jarnail Singh, Gulab Singh, Jitender Tomar, Rituraj Jha, Rajesh Gupta, and Kuldeep Kumar, the seven vice presidents of the party were present at the press conference where the announcement was made.
The opposition BJP has slammed the Kejriwal government’s decision to burn the copies of the ordinance saying this shows AAP has no respect for Constitution of India.