SC to consider plea against law on control of services

The Supreme Court in Delhi will consider a plea filed by the city government on Monday challenging the constitutionality of the law on control of services. A bench comprising Chief Justices P.S. Narasimha and Chief Justice D. Y Chandrachud is likely to hear the matter. Senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi had mentioned the matter, and senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi had mentioned the matter on July 6 for an urgent hearing. The AAP government has said it is an unconstitutional exercise of executive fiat that seeks to override the top court and the basic structure of the Constitution. The Delhi government also wants an interim stay on the ordinance, after it was quashed. On May 19 the Centre proposed the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Amendment Ordinance, 2023, to establish an authority for transfer and posting of Group-A officers in Delhi. AAP government has called it a deception with the Supreme Court's decision to control services. The decision came a week after the Supreme Court handed over the control of services in Delhi - including police, public order and land to the elected government - but wants to establish an National Capital Civil Service Authority for transfer of and disciplinary proceedings against Group-A officers from the Delhi, Andaman Nicobar, Lakshadweep, Daman and Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli Civil Services DANICS. Transfer and postings of all officers of the Delhi government were under the executive control of the LG before the Supreme Court's decision on May 11th. The Delhi government has said that the order, which came days after the apex court verdict, is a plain attempt to override the top court and the basic structure of the Constitution itself vide executive fiat. A five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud had put an end to the eight-year-old dispute between the centre and the Delhi government triggered by a 2015 Home Minister notification asserting its control over services, describing the administration of the National Capital Territory as'unlike other union territories and has been accorded a'sui generis' unique status by the Constitution. Despite the frequent run-ins between the AAP government and the Centre's point man, the lieutenant Governor, the apex court argued that an elected government must have control over bureaucrats, failing which the principle of collective responsibility will be adversely affected.