SC refuses to stay HC order on Delhi Lt.governor

The Supreme Court on Friday refused to grant an interim stay on the Delhi High Court verdict giving primacy to the lieutenant governor (L-G) in Delhi’s administrative setup.

The court also declined to stay the recent decision of Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung to set up a three-member committee to scrutinise over 400 files and past orders of the elected city government.

“Every day there would be some order, we cannot pass orders on a daily basis,” a bench of Justices A K Sikri and N V Ramana said. Hearing a batch of seven petitions by the Delhi government against the August 4 verdict, the court sought response from the Union government within six weeks.

The Delhi government fielded senior advocates K K Venugopal, P P Rao, Rajiv Dhawan, Gopal Subramaniam and Indira Jaising. Venugopal sought a stay on the judgement, contending that the verdict had reduced the elected government into some



interim arrangement, and the Centre through the L-G had taken over governance. Venugopal also submitted that no official was willing to sign the petition for challenging the verdict as the L-G’s permission was required. The bench, while observing that it was an important issue where a decision from the apex court was needed, said, “There would be no stay, we will fix the matters for final hearing on November 15”.

The court also did no agree with the preliminary objections made by Attorney General Mukul Rohatgi on the ground that instead of a chief secretary or a secretary, the pleas were supported by the affidavit of Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodoia. Rohatgi also pointed out that a nine-judge Constitution bench in the NDMC vs State of Punjab case had unequivocally held that Delhi is a Union territory. To this, the bench said the court may refer the issue to a larger bench if required.