NEW DELHI: The much-awaited meeting between chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and lieutenant governor V K Saxena on Friday failed to bring about a detente and only led to more acrimony. Addressing a press conference after the meeting, the CM said he showed several court rulings to the LG, including the Supreme Court ruling of 2018, to stress on the fact that he was bound by the aid and advice of the council of ministers and had no independent power, but the latter insisted that being the administrator of Delhi he was free to call for any file and give directions.LG’s interference in govt ‘obstructionist’: CM KejriwalAfter meeting the LG, CM Kejriwal alleged at a press conference that V K Saxena described the judgment of the constitution bench of the Supreme Court as an “opinion” and claimed that he “refused” to accept it.”I beseech the LG to appoint a capable and learned constitutional adviser in his team to tell him that Supreme Court orders are binding,” said the CM.At loggerheads on various issues of governance emanating out of division of powers between the constitutional head and the elected government, Kejriwal called on Saxena at Raj Niwas on Friday after a gap of almost three months. The LG had invited him for the meeting to promote “deliberative” and “conflict-free” governance in the capital.The idea was to discuss various provisions of the Constitution, acts and court judgments threadbare and find an amenable solution to work in tandem but the meeting probably failed to serve the purpose.Kejriwal said he shared copies of the relevant sections of acts and the views of courts on balance of power, insisting that the LG was bound to act on the aid and advice of the council of ministers on all transferable subjects mentioned in the Constitution.”But the LG insisted that being the administrator of Delhi, he had supreme powers and was free to call any official or any file he wished to,” Kejriwal said.”When I asked him if the President of India acted in the same manner with Prime Minister Narendra Modi as he was acting with me, the LG said that was a different case,” the chief minister added.Kejriwal said the LG’s interference in his government was “obstructionist” and a “strong deterrent in the fulfilment of the needs and ambitions of the people of Delhi”.The chief minister said his intention behind going for the meeting was to weed out any personal differences or any misinterpretation or misunderstanding of the Constitution and the court orders, laws and other statutes.”I even carried copies of the Constitution, Motor Vehicles Act, GNCTD Act, School Education Act and all relevant judgments of the Supreme Court to discuss with him. The constitution bench of the Supreme Court had in July 2018 passed an order saying that the LG has not been entrusted with any independent decision-making power. But the LG said the SC’s order was merely an opinion and it did not apply to him,” the CM said.Kejriwal said he raised the issues of illegal sealing of office of Delhi Dialogue Commission VC Jasmine Shah, unconstitutional appointment of the presiding officer and 10 aldermen in MCD, illegal recovery notice of Rs 164 crore towards advertisements, stopping of training tour of teachers to Finland and yoga classes among others.On the LG asking for cost-benefit analysis of teachers’ foreign training programmes, Kejriwal said it was part of “nation-building” and could not be quantified.The chief minister said he told LG how payments across all departments in the past three months had been stopped by the officers resulting in stalling of several developmental work, including construction of sewage and water treatment plants and payment of salaries of doctors, bus marshals and hospital staffers, pension of retired DTC employees, electricity subsidy and old-age pensions.”When confronted, the officers say that the LG’s office indirectly pressured them to do so. All of this happened three months before the MCD elections to harm AAP. I asked him why he did so, but he denied involvement in it,” said Kejriwal.Emphasising that it was not a “good precedence” to “politicise the life and survival” of Delhiites, Kejriwal said the LG should respect the Supreme Court judgment which said he did not have any independent decision-making power and had to abide by it. “He must respect the court and the Constitution,” he said.
Source: https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/lg-vk-saxena-just-refused-to-accept-sc-order-on-powers-delhi-cm-arvind-kejriwal/articleshow/96977465.cms