Amid the second wave of Corona in Delhi, the Center has implemented a law that gives more authority to the Lieutenant Governor than the elected government of the people in Delhi. According to the new law, the Delhi government will mean ‘Lieutenant Governor’. The Government of Delhi will now have to seek the permission of the Lieutenant Governor before taking any executive decision. The Government of National Capital Territory (GNCT) of Delhi (Amendment) Act, 2021 has been implemented in which the Lt. Governor has been given priority over the city’s elected government. According to the notification issued by the Ministry of Home Affairs, the provisions of the Act have come into force from 27 April.
This controversial law was approved last month amid heavy opposition in both the houses. The Lok Sabha approved it on 22 March and the Rajya Sabha on 24 March. When this bill was passed by the Parliament, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal called it a “sad day for Indian democracy”.
The Aam Aadmi Party, led by Arvind Kejriwal, captured 62 out of 70 seats in the 2020 assembly elections. The BJP account had 8 seats, while the Congress account could not be opened. Arvind Kejriwal has been alleging that the Central Government, by providing more authority to the Lieutenant Governor, has been trying to rule Delhi against the elected government and stop the Delhi government’s schemes.
In this tug of rights, the Supreme Court also made an important decision in July 2018. The Constitution Bench provided that the Lieutenant Governor has no independent right to take decisions and is bound to act on the advice of the elected government. A five-member Constitution bench had said in a unanimous decision that there is no place for autocracy and anarchy.
“The status of the Lieutenant Governor of Delhi is not that of a Governor of a State, rather he remains an administrator, in a limited sense, working with the designation of Lieutenant Governor,”
the judges said.
