Control of services: SC to hear Delhi govt plea against ordinance on July 10

A Delhi government plea challenging the constitutionality of the central ordinance on the control of services is scheduled to come up for hearing in the Supreme Court on Monday (July 10).

The AAP government has argued that it is an “unconstitutional exercise of executive fiat” and an attempt to “override” the top court and the basic structure of the Constitution. It has sought that the ordinance be quashed.

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Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi had on July 6 sought an urgent hearing. A bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justice PS Narasimha is likely to hear the matter on Monday.

The contentious ordinance

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023, came on May 19, a week after the Supreme Court handed over the control of services in Delhi, excluding police, public order, and land, to the elected government.

It seeks to set up a National Capital Civil Service Authority for the transfer of Group-A officers from the Delhi, Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu, and Dadra and Nagar Haveli (Civil) Services (DANICS) cadre and disciplinary proceedings against them.

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The AAP government has termed the ordinance as a “deception” of the Supreme Court’s earlier verdict on the control of services. Before the May 11 top court verdict, transfer and postings of all officers of the Delhi government were under the executive control of the Lieutenant Governor.

In its plea, the Delhi government has said the ordinance is a plain attempt to “override” the top court and the basic structure of the Constitution itself vide executive fiat.

Previous SC order

On May 11, the five-judge Constitution bench headed by CJI Chandrachud, in a unanimous verdict, put an end to the eight-year-old dispute between the Centre and the Delhi government triggered by a 2015 home ministry notification asserting its control over services.

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The court held that the National Capital Territory administration is unlike other Union Territories and has been “accorded a sui generis (unique) status by the Constitution”.

Against the backdrop of frequent run-ins between the AAP government and the Centre’s point man, the LG, the apex court asserted that an elected government needs to have control over bureaucrats, failing which the principle of collective responsibility will be adversely affected.

(With agency inputs)