Following the historic judgment of the Delhi High Court pertaining to powers of elected Government in Delhi and lieutenant-Governor office, lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung reiterated on Thursday that all those decisions of the AAP Government that are incorrect and violation of the constitutional norms, would be rectified.
The lieutenant-Governor said he had declared as “unconstitutional” only a few orders. “I do report to the Centre, but (it is) wrong to say we act against interest of the Delhi Government. Don’t think the stalemate has affected governance in Delhi. Atleast 99.99 per cent matters that not violated the constitutional norms and he objected to only those decisions that were in violation of the constitution,” said the l-G, adding “Arvind Kejriwal and Najeeb Jung are immaterial. What matters is constitutional norms.” “Even in the MlAs Salary Bill is concerned, his office ‘Raj Niwas has sent three reminders to the Government that there was no reply,” Jung said.
Responding to a query that now lieutenant-Governor is the boss of Delhi after the High Court judgement, Jung said that the High Court’s ruling that he is the “administrative head” of Delhi was neither a victory for him nor a defeat for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, noting its crux is to govern the city as per the provisions in the Constitution. Jung said Kejriwal may have animosity against him but he does not have any such thing against the Delhi Chief Minister. On the slugfest between his office and the AAP Government, the l-G said, “My office has never used abusive language against anybody. We did not start the slugfest. Whenever we get any papers, (we) validate it with constitutional statutes. We had sent to the Centre all 14 Bills sent to me by AAP. They are looking into it.”
Jung, addressing a rare Press conference, said a number of decisions, including Delhi Government’s directions to power regulator DERC, appointment of Government representatives to BSES board and certain orders relating to tax will have to be “corrected” as they did not have his concurrence.
The lt Governor, who had a long running battle with the AAP Government on a host of jurisdictional issues, said he always wanted to protect the provisions of the Constitution and did not agree to the AAP Government’s decisions when he found they were at variance with the laid down norms.
“It is not a victory of anyone. It is not a win for Najeeb Jung and loss for Arvind Kejriwal. The court order is a kind of clarification that incorrect things will have to be corrected,” he said.
The lieutenant-Governor, who has been targeted by the Kejriwal Government over his decisions, said, “My DNA is such that I don’t get affected by abusive language.” Jung said the verdict clarified that matters related to services will have to be handled by the lieutenant Governor and that the Centre’s concurrence was not necessary on certain issues and he can take calls on them.
Asked about the AAP Government’s decision to challenge the High Court verdict in Supreme Court, Jung said, “They do not have a case.”
On the five Bills relating to enhancing salaries of MlAs, Ministers, Speaker, Deputy Speaker and leader of Opposition in the House, he said following communication on them by the Centre, he had sought certain clarifications but the AAP Government has not responded.