The Supreme Court on Friday gave a free hand to the lieutenant-Governor of Delhi to review its earlier decision to keep Delhi Assembly under suspended animation even as a Constitution Bench is all set to hear the petition by Aam Aadmi Party on August 5 challenging the l-G’s order.
The court held that the pendency of the AAP’s petition demanding dissolution of the Assembly and holding of fresh elections will not cause an “impendiment” in the l-G’s way when it comes to taking a decision in this regard. Additional Solicitor General PS Narasimha informed the court that there was no need for fresh elections as the February 16 proclamation of the President to keep the Assembly in suspended animation had a one-year tenure.
He further attacked the AAP petition on the ground that till date there was no precedent where the court decided on dissolving an Assembly. For BJP, senior advocate Ashok Desai pointed out that even the l-G was confused due to the constant flip-flop by AAP by initially demanding fresh election and later asking l-G not to do so.
Desai said the court must be wary of not serving the political agenda of any particular political party as he suggested that demanding fresh election was part of AAP’s political agenda. But AAP informed the Court that the core questions of constitutional importance were at the heart of the petition as it questioned the discretion of l-G not to dismiss the House when no possibility of Government formation except by means of horse trading was available.
Senior advocate Fali S Nariman who represented AAP suggested that after the recent lok Sabha elections, the situation became more precarious as both AAP and BJP MlAs in the House had the same tally of 28 with three BJP MlAs getting elected as Members of Parliament.