In the battle of rights in the country’s biggest court, Delhi’s Kejriwal government defeated the Modi government at the center. The Supreme Court on Thursday gave a historic verdict on the right of transfer and posting of civil servants in Delhi and clearly told the Modi government at the Center that the real boss in Delhi is not Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena but the people’s elected Kejriwal government. The Constitution Bench of 5 judges of the Supreme Court – CJI DY Chandrachud, Justice MR Shah, Justice Krishna Murari, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice PS Narasimha gave this historic verdict.
Big things about the Supreme Court’s decision
- Both the Center and the States have the right to make laws, but the Center should limit its interference
- The Center should not interfere so much that it takes over the work of the State Government. This will affect the federal structure.
- If any officer feels that the government cannot control him, then his responsibility will decrease and his work will be affected.
- The Supreme Court said that the Lieutenant Governor will have to act only on the advice of the Delhi government.
Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has welcomed this historic decision of the Supreme through a tweet and called it a victory of democracy. Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has tweeted that, “Thank you from the bottom of my heart to the Honorable Supreme Court for doing justice to the people of Delhi. With this decision, the pace of development of Delhi will increase manifold. Democracy won.
On behalf of the Delhi government, Education Minister Atishi, Health Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj and Environment Minister Gopal Rai held a joint press conference and welcomed the decision of the Supreme Court and lashed out at the Modi government at the Centre.
While giving the verdict, CJI DY Chandrachud also advised the Central Government that we all judges agree that this should never happen again. The Supreme Court also said that we do not agree with Justice Bhushan’s 2019 judgment, which said that the Delhi government has no authority over officers above the Joint Secretary level. Even though NCTD is not a full state, it does have the authority to legislate.
Supreme Court taught the lesson of law to the Center
- Article 239AA provides comprehensive protection, Parliament has full power to legislate on any subject in the Third Schedule.
- If there is a conflict between the Central and State laws, the Central law will prevail.
- The federal constitution has a dual polity, a dual set of government elected by “We the People” a reflection of the will of the people.
- Delhi is not a full-fledged state, but the Legislative Assembly has been empowered on subjects under List 2 and 3.
- A democratically elected government is accountable to the people of Delhi.
- The elected government should have the power to enforce the will of the people
- The federal system ends with the Center taking over all the legislative powers.
- Principle of federalism should be respected, center cannot take all legislative, appointment powers into its hands
- If the elected government cannot control the officials, how will it fulfill its collective responsibility to the people?
Significantly, there was a tussle between the Delhi government and the Lt Governor over transfer and posting rights of officers. The Delhi government was saying that the Lieutenant Governor should not interfere in this matter. While Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena was harping on the powers given to him by the central government, the Delhi government had filed a petition in the Supreme Court regarding this matter. On Thursday, the Modi government had to face the Supreme Court in the matter of transfer and posting rights of civil servants.