The Supreme Court will hear on April 14 a plea filed by the AAP government against the Delhi lieutenant governor's approval with riders to send teachers to Finland for training.
Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the AAP government, mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and sought an urgent hearing.
The Supreme Court will hear on April 14 a plea filed by the AAP government against the Delhi lieutenant governor's approval with riders to send teachers to Finland for training.
Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for the AAP government, mentioned the matter before a bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud and sought an urgent hearing.
"LG is deciding which teachers to send, how to send and when to send. This is concerning the teachers' training programme," Singhvi said.
The top court said it will hear the matter on April 14.
Delhi Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena had in March given in-principle approval to the city government's proposal to send primary teachers of state-run schools to Finland for training.
"Issue a declaration that the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi is bound to act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers,” the petition urged the bench, while seeking setting aside of the order issued by the LG.
The petition claimed that the LG caused “unwarranted and deliberate delay” in approving the proposal sent by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT), Government of the NCT of Delhi, to send primary in-charge teachers of government schools for training to Finland in the months of December 2022 and March 2023.
“His observations seek to place an effective embargo upon conducting such programs in the future,” the petition claimed.
It claimed the proposal was submitted to the LG on October 25, 2022 but it was approved five months later on March 4, 2023, when it had become infructuous, that too with several amendments and conditions.
It claimed while granting the approval, the LG stated such teachers trained during the said programme shall only become trainers in India, and in future there was no need for such training abroad. The LG, the petition claimed, suggested they should be conducted within India.
“In this context, the petition is seeking a re-declaration of the well settled position of law that the Governor is bound to act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers and has no independent decision-making power,” the petition said.
It claimed the alleged amendments/conditions attached to the approval were against the aid and advice of the council of ministers.
“Not only do the above amendment/conditions stultify the decision-making process of the government of the day but also restrict its functioning in the education sector,” it added.
It said by imposing the above conditions and amendments, the LG has “illegally and unconstitutionally” assumed the role of an appellate authority.
“By not processing the files with reasonable expedition, the LG is effectively exercising pocket veto power in areas over which the elected government has exclusive executive power,” it added.
In his approval, Saxena had noted that the Arvind Kejriwal government had refused to bring on record the "impact assessment of the foreign training programmes conducted in the past".
"Lieutenant Governor V K Saxena has approved the education department's proposal for the training programme of primary in-charges in Finland. Taking the approach of equitable benefit for all, the LG has increased the number of primary in-charges, who were to proceed to Finland for training, from 52 to 87 to ensure equal representation of primary in-charges from all 29 administrative zones of the education department," an official from the LG's office had said.
"With this, 87 primary in-charges -- three in-charges from each of the 29 administrative zones -- will be selected for the training programme as against the 52 primary in-charges who were arbitrarily selected by the government," the official had said.
The issue triggered a war of words between the LG's office and the government, with the AAP dispensation accusing Saxena of interfering in the government's work.
-With PTI Input