Reacting to yesterday’s MHA notification on the Gamlin row, senior lawmaker Gopal Subramanium “expressed hope that the PM, President and Council of Ministers will bear upon the subject a certain degree of detachment and dispassion because the Constitution is the most solemn and sacred of documents to any Indian.”
“What cannot be done under the Article239AA of the Constitution, cannot be undertaken with reference to another provision of the Constitution”, Subramanium said.
He further added that, such an exercise may be assailed in a court of law as a fraud on the Constitution or a colourable exercise of authority.
According to latest reports, The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government has sought the opinion of legal and constitutional experts on the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) notification over the distribution of powers between the Lieutenant Governor’s office and the office of the Delhi Chief Minister. Sources in the Delhi government suggest that the AAP led government might challenge the notification in court today.
The Ministry of Home Affairs amended a 1998 notification yesterday and said that according to the Constitution L-G was the “administrative head” of the National Capital Territory of Delhi.
The notification also made it clear that since bureaucrats and police officers working in the Delhi government belong to central cadres like AGMU, IPS, DANICS and DANIPS, the Anti Corruption Bureau (ACB) of Delhi government had no jurisdiction on them. This notification comes as a severe blow to Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government’s anti-corruption drive, since they will no longer be able to book these officials facing charges of corruption.
The gazette notification supercedes the one in 1998, issued by the then Home Minister LK Advani also says that legislative assembly of Delhi has no “executive powers” and the order of L-G will be final when it came to matters of transfers and postings. It was on the issue of appointment of an interim chief secretary Shakuntala Gamlin that the L-G office and Delhi government had a heated controversy.