Terming the Supreme Court’s verdict on the contentious issue of control of services in the National Capital Territory (NCT) as anti-constitution and anti-democracy, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal said it is an injustice to the people of Delhi and that the AAP Government will seek legal remedies.
Soon after the court’s verdict, Kejriwal accused the BJP-led Government at the Centre of creating hurdles in the functioning of the AAP dispensation and appealed to the people to elect AAP candidates in all the seven Lok Sabha seats in Delhi to help the party achieve full-Statehood for Delhi.
While the AAP used popular Bollywood dialogue “tareekh pe tareekh” to describe a split verdict after four years of litigation, the BJP promptly accused Kejriwal of “declaring a war on the Supreme Court” and said it is considering filing contempt of court proceedings against him.
Advising Kejriwal, Delhi Congress Pradesh president and former Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit said fighting is no solution. “Constitution has defined the power Delhi has, it’s not unlimited. The Centre, the Lieutenant Governor, and the Home Ministry handle many things in the Capital. So fighting is no solution, make changes if needed,” Sheila said.
Rebutting her advice, Kejriwal said, “I respect Sheilaji. I appeal to her not to make such comments. We don’t even have 10 per cent of the power that her Government had. Didn’t she have the power to transfer officers? Still, in the last four years we have done more work than her Government did in 15 years,” he said.
Meanwhile, Delhi unit of the BJP welcomed the Court’s verdict and said it removes ambiguities in the powers of the Delhi Government.
Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said, “The Supreme Court in its judgement has decided on six issues. On the issue of transfer-posting, the court held the Anti Corruption Branch (ACB) and Commission of inquiry are under the jurisdiction of Central Government,” statement of Kejriwal that we respect the court but the verdict is injustice to the people of Delhi is quite unfortunate,” said Tiwari.
