New Delhi
The Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Thursday delivered important two judgment, one related to the political developments that led to the installing of Eknath Shinde as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra in June last year and the other on who has control over ‘services’ in the National Capital Territory (NCT), the Delhi government of the office of the Lieutenant Governor.
In both the cases, Congress Rajya Member and national spokesperson Abhishek Manu Singhvi was the lawyer. In the Maharashtra case, on behalf of Udhav Thackeray, Singhvi was the single lawyer, while in the NCT case, Singhvi represented the Delhi government alongwith his former party colleague Kapil Sibal.
In the Maharashtra case, in an unanimous verdict, the court while hearing multiple cases that were filed after the fall of the three-party Maha Vikas Aghadi (MVA) government led by Udhav Thackeray following a revolt by the Shinde faction, a five-judge Constitution bench headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud held that the then speaker’s decision to appoint Bharat Gogawale of the Shinde faction as the whip of Shiv Sena was ”illegal”.
The court also pulled up Maharashtra governor Bhagat Singh Koshyari and said he did not have reasons based on objective material before him to reach the conclusion that then chief minister Thackeray had lost the confidence of the house.
As per the order, Eknath Shinde will continue as the chief minister of Maharashtra, with the Supreme Court stating that it cannot restore the then MVA government led by Thackeray as he resigned without facing the floor test in June last year. This would have larger ramifications in the future as now every CM would be under pressure to take the floor test and confirm the loss of confidence rather than leave it to speculations and conspiracies.
While deciding on who controls the administrative actions in Delhi, the same bench in another unanimous decision stated that the Government has control over ‘services’ in the National Capital Territory, excluding the matters relating to public order, police and land.
A five-judge Constitution Bench held that the Delhi Lt Governor shall be bound by decisions of the Government of NCT of Delhi over the bureaucracy, except the three subjects, ie, public order, police and land – on which the Centre exercises its authority through the L-G.
“If a democratically elected government is not given the power to control the officers, the principle of triple chain of accountability will be redundant. If the officers stop reporting to the ministers or do not abide by their directions, the principle of collective responsibility is affected. If “services” are excluded from the legislative and executive domain (of the elected government of NCT Delhi), ministers would be excluded from controlling the civil servants who are to implement the executive decisions,” the bench said.
The bench was hearing the case after on 14 February 2019 the court delivered a split verdict on the issue of control of administrative services. Then, a Bench of Justice AK Sikri and Justice Ashok Bhushan had different views as to who had powers to appoint and transfer officers of State Public Services under Entry 41, List II of the Constitution. In view of the split verdict, the issue of “services” was referred to a three-judge Bench and then to a five-judge Bench.
Speaking to the Daily Guardian, Singhvi said both the two Constitutional Bench orders were ““ Historic, path breaking & seminal”.
“Almost all relevant legal findings in the Maharashtra judgement were in favour of the us. Morally, legally, politically & ethically, the petitioners had won even though status quo ante was not restored.The whip by the Shinde faction was held wrongly recognised/appointed by the Speaker; more importantly, the Shinde faction was held to be illegally recognised. Whips had to be by a political party not the legislature party. The Governor’s entire decision to call for a floor test was declared illegal since it lacked objective material,” he said.
“What more was left? If the present speaker takes up the pending disqualification petitions and decides them expeditiously, he will necessarily have to disqualify all the Shinde faction MLAs, since they admittedly violated the legitimate Thackeray whip and purported to follow an illegal whip. The only recourse which the present Speaker has is to delay, delay and delay the disqualification proceedings which would be contrary to today’s judgment and constitutionally immoral,” he told this newspaper.
Commenting on the NCT case, Singhvi said that NCT judgement affirmed almost each and every contention of the NCT government. “It is not about this political party or that. Today it is AAP, tomorrow it can be Congress as a ruling party in NCT. The judgement is a victory for Delhi’s people and for the autonomy of Delhi, which is not merely a UT but a special and unique one with constitutionally demarcated powers. What the framers gave to Delhi specifically by the right hand under article 239 AA, cannot be taken away by the left hand of a meddlesome, interfering BJP led central Sarkar, acting obstructively and with sour grapes on every issue pertaining to Delhi and negating the very raison d etre of giving Delhi special status in the first place.”
According to him, services have specifically been subjected to NCT control and the LG has been reminded of what has been known for decades viz that he acts on the aid and advice of the NCT govt, except in excluded or other special cases. “This is a salutary reaffirmation of the autonomous and democratic will of the people of Delhi and a rightful brake on a rapacious central government,” he told this newspaper