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posted by: Sanstuti Nath
Last updated: July 18, 2023, 07:07 AM IST
Delhi LG VK Saxena (left) with CM Arvind Kejriwal (ANI photo)
The Supreme Court was told that many of these appointments were made because of their political affiliation and without a transparent recruitment process
The Lieutenant Governor of Delhi on Monday defended in the Supreme Court his decision to dismiss 437 independent consultants employed by Arvind Kejriwal’s government, saying the appointments were illegal and completely violated constitutional principles of conservation and administrative law.
In an affidavit filed before the Supreme Court, LG stated that the actual intent of the AAP government behind the appointments was to create a parallel civil service without any accountability.
The Supreme Court was told that many of these appointments were made because of their political affiliation and without a transparent recruitment process.
“Without prejudice to the report that the appointment and involvement of 437 advisors/fellow researchers is in and of itself unlawful and unconstitutional, any challenge thereto by the petitioner or any aggrieved person having a right, shall be before the Delhi High Court, and not before this Honorable Court, just because the matter on the matter is pending here.
“This court could not allow such intelligent support, as to deny the defendant the right to appeal, in the unlikely situation that the court finds in favor of the petitioner,” LG said in the affidavit.
The Lieutenant Governor claimed that the appointments were legally untenable, and claimed that the decision was made without his consent and the selection criteria were revised after applications were invited and forged to appoint unqualified persons.
“It is necessary for employees of the government, whether regular or contractual, who are paid from the Consolidated Fund of the State Treasury, not only to maintain political neutrality, but to appear to do so.
However, many of these politically selected fellows/colleagues did engage in political activities on social media (eg Twitter). It was also noted that after the release of the letter dated 5 July, most of the fellows/associate colleagues either deleted their accounts on Twitter or lock them from public view,” the affidavit reads, adding that this misconduct in itself is a suggested reason for their removal.
In the latest bright spot, Lieutenant-Governor VK Saxena recently agreed to terminate the services of 437 advisors who had been appointed by the Kejriwal-led AAP dispensation to various departments and agencies of the city government. LG indicated that there were irregularities in their commitments to this step.
Kejriwal had said that terminating the work of the specialists would stifle the Delhi government and its services and he hoped the Supreme Court would overturn it.
The Supreme Court agreed on 10 July to hear the AAP government’s 17 July applications for a decision by the Lieutenant Governor to fire 437 independent consultants employed by the Arvind Kejriwal administration.
In a unanimous ruling, the five-judge constitution panel headed by Chief Justice D. Y. Chandrachod sought to end the eight-year-old dispute between the center and the Delhi government triggered by a 2015 Home Ministry notification asserting its control over services, arguing that the administration of the National Capital Territory is different from other union territories and that it was “conferred ‘unique’ (unique) status under the Constitution”.
Against the backdrop of frequent disagreements between the AAP government and the man of the centre, the Lieutenant Governor, the Supreme Court emphasized that the elected government needed to control the bureaucrats, otherwise the principle of collective responsibility would be negatively affected.
(This story was not edited by the News18 staff and was published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)
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