Constitution Bench to go into scope of Centre, Delhi Govt’s powers
A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court will go into the scope of Legislative and Executive powers of the Centre and the National Capital Territory (NCT) Government over control of services in Delhi for an “authoritative pronouncement”. On May 6, the top court had referred to a five-judge Constitution Bench the issue of control of services in Delhi.
The SC agreed to hear the matter on an urgent basis after senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government, urged a Bench comprising Chief Justice NV Ramana and Justices Krishna Murari and Hima Kohli that the issue needed an urgent hearing.
In a relief to the Centre, which was seeking the issue of control of services in Delhi to a larger Bench, the apex court had said the limited issue of control over services was not dealt by the Constitution Bench which “elaborately dealt with’’ all legal questions.
“The limited issue that has been referred to this Bench, relates to the scope of Legislative and Executive powers of the Centre and NCT Delhi with respect to the term ‘services’. The Constitution Bench of this court, while interpreting Article 239AA(3)(a) of the Constitution, did not find any occasion to specifically interpret the impact of the wordings of the same with respect to Entry 41 in the State List.
“We, therefore, deem it appropriate to refer to the above-limited question, for an authoritative pronouncement by a Constitution Bench...,” it had said. Sub Article 3 (a) of 239AA (which deals with the status and power of Delhi in the Constitution, deals with the law-making power of the Delhi Legislative Assembly on the matters enumerated in the State List or the Concurrent List. The Bench had reserved its order on April 28 on the Centre’s submission that the dispute over the control over services be referred to a five-judge Bench, a plea which was strongly opposed by the AAP-led Delhi Government.
The Central Government had also sought a joint hearing of two separate petitions of the Delhi Government on control over services and challenging the constitutional validity of the amended GNCTD Act, 2021 and the Transaction of Business Rules, which allegedly give more powers to the Lieutenant- Governor respectively, saying they are prima facie correlated.