Centre unconstitutionally changed law in 2021 to ensure all govt files are sent to Delhi LG: Kejriwal

Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday said the Centre enacted a law in 2021 to ensure that all government files are sent to the lieutenant governor and expressed hope that the Supreme Court will strike down the “unconstitutional” law.

The chief minister said the Constitution states that the LG is bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers.

“This is the same for the states of India, where the Governor is bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. The process was the same for Delhi until 2018, when the Supreme Court stated that the Lt Governor in Delhi is also bound by the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. But in 2021, the central government unconstitutionally changed the law and stated that all the files of the Delhi government will have to be passed through the LG Office,” he claimed.

Accusing the LG of unnecessarily creating objections on all the decisions of the government, he said, “This was illegal and the central government has blatantly used its majority to pass a law that goes against our Constitution.” “…in 2021, the central government made a mockery of the Constitution and passed an illegal law. We have moved the Supreme Court on the matter and we are hopeful that soon the apex court will rule this law to be illegal. It is not right for the LG to obstruct all the development works of the state government on some pretext or the other. The works that are for the benefit of the citizens should not be blocked by any person. I sincerely hope that the LG Office will look into this matter and pass the file as soon as possible,” he said.

Kejriwal said 36 principals from government schools in Punjab will be sent to Singapore for a five-day training programme that will begin on February 6 and conclude on February 10. “We had previously done the same in Delhi, where over 1000 school principals have been sent abroad and each of them has come back to improve the facilitation of education in their respective schools,” he said during a press conference.

The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) is in power in Delhi and Punjab.

Noting that other states in the country are taking inspiration from Delhi and sending their educators abroad, he said that unfortunately in Delhi, due to dirty politics, educators have been deprived of this opportunity.  “Our intentions were to send 30 principals in December last year and 30 more principals in March this year. Unfortunately, because of the unnecessary obstructions caused by the LG of Delhi, those principals who were due to go in December last year missed out on the opportunity and now it looks like those who are to go in March this year will end up with a similar fate. The file that needs to be cleared by the LG to send the educators next month has been lying around in his office for a couple of days now,” he alleged.

Talking about the timeline, he said that the government had sent this file to the LG Office on October 25 last year.  “After keeping it with him for 15 days, the LG returned the file with three objections on November 10. We ensured that his previous objections were cleared and sent it to him once again. But his office came up with two new objections and sent the file back to the Delhi Government on January 9. We once again worked to clear his objections and sent the file back on January 20, but we still have not got the file back,” he said.

Kejriwal said that when he went to the Raj Niwas along with other AAP MLAs to protest against Saxena, the LG office said that he does not have any problem with teachers going abroad for the training programme.

“He claimed that he had just asked for some clarifications. If this is really true, then why has the file been lying in his office for the past 15 days. Why has his office not cleared the file yet?” Kejriwal asked.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)