The Delhi Government on Wednesday told the Supreme Court that senior bureaucrats were not carrying out orders of the elected Government while urging for an urgent hearing on its plea against the contentious law giving the Lieutenant Governor’s (L-G) an upper hand in matters related to transfers and postings of senior officials in the national Capital.
A bench comprising Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and justices JB Pardiwala and Manoj Misra was urged by senior advocate Abhishek Singhvi, appearing for the Delhi Government, that the matter be listed before a five-judge Constitution bench for urgent hearing.
“I can’t express the agony of the (Delhi) administration,” the senior lawyer said. Senior advocate AM Singhvi, representing the Delhi government, said, “There is extraordinary urgency in this case. The civil servants are not following orders.” To this, Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud said, “There are two seven judges benches next week and then there are couple of Constitution benches.”
“There are older Constitution bench matters. We are listing and there are two seven-judge bench matters also coming up. All these are also important and are pending for years,” the CJI said, adding it may be listed after some time.
The bench, however, asked Singhvi and Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain to sit together and decide the legal questions to be decided by the Constitution bench in the services row.
