Delhi Ordinance Row: Supreme Court Issues Notice To Centre, To Consider Plea On Stay Next Week

The Supreme Court on Monday issued notice to Centre on the plea filed by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP)-led Delhi government challenging the constitutionality of the Delhi Services Ordinance. The top court bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices P S Narasimha also directed the Delhi government to amend its plea and add Lieutenant Governor as a party in the case.
 
In its plea, the Arvind Kejriwal government said it is an "unconstitutional exercise of executive fiat" that attempts to "override" the Supreme Court and the basic structure of the Constitution. The Delhi government has not only sought to quash the ordinance but also an interim stay on it. 

The top court has posted the matter for next Monday for considering interim reliefs. According to a LiveLaw report, the bench was initially reluctant to consider the plea for a stay, saying that Court cannot stay a statute. "It is an Ordinance. We have to hear the matter,” CJI Chandrachud said. However, Advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi attempted to persuade the bench by giving instances of a court staying legislation.

The issue dates back to the May 19 order of the BJP-led Centre that promulgated the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, to create an authority for the transfer and posting of Group-A officers in the national capital. 

The ordinance, which takes away the Delhi government’s authority over appointments and transfers of its bureaucrats and hands it to the Lieutenant Governor, came against the backdrop of frequent run-ins between the AAP government and the Centre's point man, L-G VK Saxena.

It came a week after the Supreme Court handed over the control of services in Delhi excluding police, public order and land to the elected government. 

A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, in a unanimous verdict, had put an end to the eight-year-old dispute between the Centre and the Delhi government triggered by a 2015 home ministry notification asserting its control over services, holding the National Capital Territory administration is unlike other union territories and has been "accorded a 'sui generis' (unique) status by the Constitution.  

The apex court asserted an elected government needs to have control over bureaucrats, failing which the principle of collective responsibility will be adversely affected.