New Delhi, March 28: President Ram Nath Kovind on Sunday gave his assent to a bill that accords primacy to Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor (L-G) over the elected government.
The central government announced about the presidential assent to the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021 through a gazette notification.
According to the legislation, the “government” in Delhi means the “Lieutenant Governor” and the city government will now have to seek the opinion of the L-G before taking any executive action.
Parliament passed the bill last week — Lok Sabha on March 22 and Rajya Sabha on March 24.
After Rajya Sabha passed the bill, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal termed it a “sad day for Indian democracy”.
The Centre has maintained that the bill is in line with the Supreme Court’s July 2018 ruling on the ambit of powers of the Lieutenant Governor and the Delhi government after a series of run-ins between the two.
Union Minister G Kishan Reddy had said the amendments would lead to transparency and clarity in governance in NCT of Delhi and enhance public accountability.
Explaining the rationale behind the bill, he said the amendments have been brought to remove ambiguities in the existing Act.
He stressed that changes in the law have been sought in the spirit of what has been said in a Supreme Court judgment and maintained that there no political angle and the amendments are on “technical” grounds.
“The proposed bill does not curtail in any manner any of the powers enjoyed by the government of NCT Delhi which are already provided in the Constitution,” he had said.
In June 2018, Kejriwal and his Cabinet ministers had staged a sit-in at the Lieutenant Governor’s office as a power tussle between the then L-G and the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government had intensified.
The Supreme Court had in July 2018 ruled that the Lieutenant Governor cannot interfere in every decision of the Delhi government and that he must act on aid and advice of the council of ministers.
The Aam Aadmi Party has already said it was planning to approach the Supreme Court against the legislation, alleging it was an “unconstitutional” attempt to make the Delhi government “administratively impotent” by a political party that has been made “electorally impotent” by the people of the national capital.
The Congress, Trinamool Congress, Shiv Sena, DMK and other opposition parties also termed the bill “unconstitutional” and claimed that it would fail judicial scrutiny. They had demanded that it be examined by a Select Committee.
According to the statement of objects and reasons of the bill, to give effect to the interpretation made by the Supreme Court which had ruled that the city government need not obtain the Lieutenant Governor’s “concurrence” of every issue of day-to-day governance, the bill has been brought. (PTI)
