The Delhi Lieutenant Governor on Monday defended in the Supreme Court his decision to fire 437 independent consultants hired by the Arvind Kejriwal government, saying the appointments were illegal and in complete violation of constitutional principles of reservation and administrative law.
In an affidavit filed before the top court, the LG stated that the actual intent of the AAP government behind the appointments was to create a parallel civil service without any accountability.
The apex court was told that several of these appointments were done due to their political affiliation and without a transparent recruitment process.
“Without prejudice to the submission that the appointment and engagement of 437 consultants/fellows researchers is per se illegal and unconstitutional, any challenge thereto, by the Petitioner, or any aggrieved person with locus, should be before the High Court of Delhi, and not before this Hon’ble Court, merely because the issue relating to the Ordinance is pending here.
“Such clever piggy-backing cannot be permitted by this Court, such that it denudes the answering respondent its right to even appeal, in the unlikely situation that the Court finds favour with the Petitioner,” the LG said in the affidavit.
Alleging that the appointments were legally untenable, the Lieutenant Governor claimed that the decision was taken without his approval and the selection criteria were revised after inviting the applications and rigged to appoint ineligible persons.
“It is essential for the government servants, irrespective of regular or contractual, who are drawing the salary from the Consolidated Fund of the State Exchequer, that they shall not only maintain the political neutrality but also appears to do so.
“However, many of such politically selected Fellows/Associate Fellows were involved in political activities on social media (like Twitter). It is further observed that after issuance of the letter dated July 5, most of these Fellows/Associate Fellows have either deleted their Twitter accounts or locked the same from public viewing,” the affidavit said, adding that this misconduct is in itself a proposed cause for their removal.
In the latest flashpoint, Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena recently approved the termination of services of 437 consultants appointed by the Kejriwal-led AAP dispensation to various departments and agencies of the city government. The LG cited irregularities in their engagements for the move.
Kejriwal had said the termination of the specialists would strangulate the Delhi government and its services and hoped that the Supreme Court would quash it.
The top court on July 10 agreed to consider the AAP government’s submissions on July 17 on a decision by the Lieutenant Governor to fire 437 independent consultants hired by the Arvind Kejriwal dispensation.
A five-judge constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, in a unanimous verdict, had sought to 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, holding 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 lieutenant governor, the apex court had asserted that an elected government needs to have control over bureaucrats, failing which the principle of collective responsibility will be adversely affected.
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