New Delhi:
Signalling an end to legal disputes between the Lieutenant Governor, who represents the Centre, and the Delhi government, the new BJP-led dispensation in the national capital has begun withdrawing several court cases, sources said on Wednesday.
Some of these cases are related to the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission (DERC) chairman, funding for the Delhi Jal Board, appointment of lawyers in Delhi riots cases, teacher training in foreign countries and the high-level committee on Yamuna pollution.
When the AAP was in power, the Delhi government and the Lieutenant Governors – Najeeb Jung, Anil Baijal and VK Saxena – frequently clashed over one issue or the other and several of these disagreements made their way to the courts. The AAP government, led by Arvind Kejriwal and then Aatishi, complained that the Lieutenant Governor (LG) was deliberately hampering the implementation of its policies. The LG, on the other hand, accused the AAP of not cooperating with him.
The tussle with the LG is seen as one of the factors that led to the AAP’s rout in last month’s Delhi elections. The Arvind Kejriwal-led party was reduced to just 22 seats in the 70-member Assembly with the BJP winning 48 and returning to power in Delhi after a gap of more than a quarter of a century. The BJP government is now led by Chief Minister Rekha Gupta.
The AAP and the LG were at loggerheads over the appointment of the Delhi Electricity Regulatory Commission chairman because the party believed that letting the Centre control the body could lead to the power subsidy scheme – which was very popular among voters – being ended.
In 2020, then LG Anil Baijal was accused by the AAP of interfering in the appointment of public prosecutors to argue cases linked to the Northeast-Delhi riot cases. “The LG and Central government are insisting on the appointment of a panel of special public prosecutors chosen by the Centre. This is happening at a time when there are very serious allegations over the response of the Delhi Police to these riots as well as how the investigation is going on,” AAP MP Sanjay Singh had said at the time.
The AAP had also moved court over the LG applying riders while approving its proposal to send teachers to Finland for training. Senior advocate AM Singhvi, appearing for the Delhi government, had told the Supreme Court in 2023: “LG is deciding which teachers to send, how to send and when to send. This is concerning the teachers’ training programme.” The counsel for LG Saxena had responded that the Kejriwal government had refused to bring on record the “impact assessment of the foreign training programmes conducted in the past”.
Sources in the Delhi government said that these and other cases will be withdrawn to resolve the confrontation between the dispensation in Delhi and the LG Office as well as the central government. “Governance will get priority,” said a source.