Following an order issued by the Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia, Principal Secretary (law) and Additional Secretary (law) of the law Department have reportedly raised the issue of the administration.
They met Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court on Monday evening and reportedly discussed the issue with him. It would be pertinent to mention that in most of the States, High Court appoints Principal Secretary and Additional Secretary rank officers in the law Department, depending on the posts.
In what is being termed as direct attempt by the AAP Government to gag its law department from giving free and fair opinion on contentious issues, Sisodia had recently taken away powers of its senior judicial officer to vet Cabinet proposals and bills. The Deputy Chief Minister had given this task to the DANICS officers. As a convention, the Cabinet notes and bills are vetted in other States by only judicial officers.
In a signed order, the Deputy Chief Minister had recently taken away the powers to vet Cabinet
proposals and bills from additional secretary and senior judicial officer Vikrant Vaid. The Deputy Chief Minister had, instead, entrusted this job to his secretary and Danics officer C Arvind.
The officer had also been tasked with the job of administrative branch.
Vaid, who till recently, had been responsible for vetting the Cabinet proposals, notifications and bills had been tasked with the job of judicial branch and filing of appeals in city courts.
The Deputy Chief Minister had also empowered another Danics officer, Ravi Dadhich, who is also secretary to Transport Minister Gopal Rai, with the job of handling litigation branch, with respect to giving his opinion and vetting notifications and other rules.
The AAP Government’s move to take away the powers of vetting the Cabinet notes and bills from the city’s top judicial officer and give the same to the non-judicial officers of the DANICS cadre had been interpreted in the bureaucratic and political circles as an attempt to gag the law officers from giving free and fair opinion on several contentious issues.