DELHI GOVERNMENT vs CENTRE

DELHI GOVERNMENT vs CENTRE

Subject : Polity

Context : The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) moved a Bill in the Lok Sabha on Monday where it proposed that the “government” in the National Capital Territory of Delhi meant the Lieutenant-Governor of Delhi.

Concept :

• The Bill gives discretionary powers to the L-G even in matters where the Legislative Assembly of Delhi is empowered to make laws.
• The proposed legislation also seeks to ensure that the L-G is “necessarily granted an opportunity” to give heror his opinion before any decision taken by the Council of Ministers (or the Delhi Cabinet) is implemented.
• Delhi is a Union Territory with a legislature and it came into being in 1991 under Article 239AA of the Constitution inserted by the Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991.

Current Status

• The 69th Amendment Act, 1992 has added two new Articles 239AA and 239AB under which the Union Territory of Delhi has been given a special status.
• 239AA provides that the Union Territory of Delhi shall now be called the National Capital Territory of Delhi and its administrator shall be known as Lt. Governor.
• It also creates a legislative assembly for Delhi which can make laws on subjects under the State List and Concurrent List except on these matters: public order, land, and police.
• Article 239AB provides that the President may by order suspend the operation of any provision of Article 239AA or of all or any of the provisions of any law made in pursuance of that article. This provision resembles Art.356 (President’s Rule)
• It also provides for a Council of Ministers for Delhi consisting of not more than 10% of the total number of members in the assembly.

SC Verdict in 2018

• In its 2018 verdict, the five-judge Bench had held that the L-G’s concurrence is not required on issues other than police, public order and land.
• It had added that decisions of the Council of Ministers will, however, have to be communicated to the L-G.
• “It has to be clearly stated that requiring prior concurrence of the Lieutenant Governor would absolutely negate the ideals of representative governance and democracy conceived for the NCT of Delhi by Article 239AA of the Constitution,” the court had ruled.
• The L-G was bound by the aid and advice if the council of ministers, it had said