New Delhi: The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi has created yet another flashpoint with Lt Governor Najeeb Jung just ahead of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's meeting with President Pranab Mukherjee. The AAP has appointed new General Administration Department Secretary Arvind Ray to replace Anindo Majumdar who it had sacked. The Lt Governor Najeeb Jung met the President and Home Minister Rajnath Singh earlier on Tuesday.
Backing the government's decision, Deputy chief Minister Manish Sisodia said, "I have a suggestion to all that we should read Constitution. Everything is clear in the Constitution. Confusion is only in the mind. One should not encroach on democratically chosen government."
In his power struggle with Jung, Kejriwal has received the backing of legal experts. Senior Supreme Court advocate Indira Jaisingh told the Delhi government that the executive is constitutionally empowered to choose its own officers.
"Who will be the chief secretary or any other secretary of the government is a matter in which the governor has to yield to the will of the political executive which has been democratically elected. In the democratic scheme of Constitution, the political executive is constitutionally empowered to choose its own officers in accordance with the cadre," Indira Jaisingh has told the Kejriwal government.
"These are not matters by any set of imaginations which will fall under the individual discretionary powers of the Lt Governor, even otherwise relying on the provision to the Article 239 AA4, the L-G cannot issue directions to appointed chief secretary," she added.
According to another Supreme Court advocate and constitutional expert Rajiv Dhawan, the right to receive information doesn't give the L-G the right to interfere. The Delhi government has been seeking legal opinion over the appointment of Delhi Chief Secretary Shakuntala Gamlin.
Kejriwal is scheduled to meet President Pranab Mukherjee at 6 pm on Tuesday. The AAP government had on Monday night directed all its officials to apprise the CM or the minister incharge of any oral or written direction by the L-G's office before following them.
"To ensure smooth functioning of day-to-day affairs of our government in accordance with the Constitution of India, the Government of NCT of Delhi Act and Transaction of Business of the Delhi Government it is hereby ordered that any direction or order, whether oral or written, received from Honorable L-G or his office to the Chief Secretary or any administrative Secretary, shall first be submitted by the concerned administrative Secretary/Chief Secretary on the file to the Minister in-charge and the Chief Minister for a decision," the order said.
The order came amid deepening confrontation between Kejriwal and Jung over appointments of top bureaucrats in the Delhi government. Earlier in the day, the AAP government told the L-G that it would not comply with his "unconstitutional" orders.
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