A day after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal slammed lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung for attempting to stall the Delhi Jan lokpal Bill 2014 at the behest of the Congress, Chief Secretary SK Srivastava on Saturday shot off a letter to Union Home Secretary Anil Goswami, urging him to withdraw Rule 55 (1) of the Transaction of Business Rules (TBR). The rules makes it mandatory for the Delhi Government to send all Bills to the Central Government before their introduction in the State Assembly.
Meanwhile, the Arvind Kejriwal Government made it clear that legal experts and a former judge of High Court were consulted only on the validity of rules relating to Assembly’s powers and not on the legislation per se. The Government’s clarification came against the backdrop of some news reports which stated that Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had sought the opinion of three lawyers and a former judge on the Jan lokpal Bill.
Top sources told The Pioneer that Chief Secretary SK Srivastava has written to the Union Home Secretary, urging him to withdraw Rule 55 (1) of the TBR which makes it mandatory for the Delhi Government to send any bill to the Central Government before its introduction in the State Assembly is constitutional. “After getting opinion from legal experts like Justice Mukul Mudgal, PV Kapoor, KN Bhatt and Pinaki Misra regarding Rule 55 (1) of the Transaction of Business Rules, Delhi Cabinet on February 3, passed a resolution recommending that the Union Home Ministry should withdraw its order and till such time decided not to accept it,” the letter said. The entire reference was to the Transaction of Business Rules for the Delhi Assembly, 1993, prepared by the Union Home Ministry and sent to the Delhi Government with the direction to implement them.
On the other hand, alleging that BJP and Congress have joined hands to stall the Jan lokpal Bill, the AAP leader and senior advocate Prashant Bhushan said its Government would ensure passage of the proposed legislation in the Assembly’s special session without prior approval of the Centre. “Without prior approval of the President and the Centre, passing Jan lokpal Bill in Assembly won’t be unconstitutional as the BJP and the Congress are claiming.”
Reacting to the AAP Government having written to the MHA urging withdrawal of TBR, the Delhi Congress president Arvinder Singh lovely said, “If the Chief Secretary has written a letter to the Union Home Secretary on withdrawal of rules, its means the Government has realised that they were on the wrong foot.” lovely said that only the Parliament is empowered to change the business rule.
Kejriwal had sought opinion from former Solicitor General Soli Sorabjee, Additional Solicitor General KN Bhatt, senior advocate Pinaki Misra and VP Kapoor on TBR. However, Sorabjee in his opinion stated that the Rule framed is ultra vires the Constitution and GNCTD Act. Bhatt in his opinion has also specified that the requirement of a prior reference to the l-G Central Government under rule 55 is outside the provisions of the Act, including S22 thereof hence, it is ultra vires. On the other hand, senior advocate Pinaki Misra stated in his opinion that his observation in conclusion that rule 55(1) does not require every legislative proposal of Delhi Assembly mandates a prior reference by the l-G to the Central Government while VP Kapoor also gave his opinion on somewhat similar lines.
Responding to a query as to why the AAP Government doesn’t want to get approval of the President and Centre before tabling the Bill in the Assembly, senior advocate and AAP leader Prashant Bhushan said, “If Government sends the lokpal Bill to the Centre, we know that the Bill would get stuck there; that’s why we are first going to table the Bill in the Assembly.”
“There is nothing written in the Constitution that the Delhi Government needs to get prior approval. Hence, tabling the Bill without prior approval of the President and the Centre in the Assembly would not be unconstitutional,” he said