LG Anil Baijal has taken the unprecedented step of appointing a new legal team comprising 39 lawyers to represent him in matters relating to the Delhi government’s services department which handles transfers, promotions and disciplinary action against bureaucrats.
The department has been at the core of an acrimonious tussle between the city government and LG. The lawyers will appear on the LG’s behalf in the HC and before the Central Administrative Tribunal.
The lawyers’ team of LG Anil Baijal comprises a new standing counsel, two additional standing counsels and 11 panel lawyers for the HC and a dedicated team of 25 advocates for other fora, including CAT.
Sources in the AAP government questioned the decision and emphasised that deputy CM Manish Sisodia, the minister for the services department, had been bypassed. They also pointed out that the Supreme Court’s final verdict on demarcation of powers between the LG and the elected government was to be delivered.
The notification says that the “LG is pleased to appoint the following advocates as panel counsel for the high court of Delhi/ Central Administrative Tribunal in relation to any suit, appeal, writ petitions, LPAs, OA, etc., and other proceedings by or against the government of the national capital territory of Delhi and/or/Union of India in relation to the affairs connected with “Services” matters of all departments of the GNCTD and/ or public officers whose defence has been undertaken by it initially for a period of one year from the date of notification.”
In September, when the department had invited applications for these posts on the instructions of the LG, Sisodia had written a protest letter arguing that even the law department was opposed to the move and that he had been kept in the dark.
However, sources said the decision was taken on the basis of the August 4, 2016 verdict of the Delhi high court that gave the LG primacy over all affairs of Delhi’s administration.
The Arvind Kejriwal government challenged the decision in the Supreme Court and a Constitution bench has recently wrapped up hearings.
In the apex court, the elected government has asserted that it has control of the services, arguing that its ministers have to “bow down before bureaucrats”
and that officials do not acknowledge them as heads of departments in light of the HC order.
Citing Article 239AA the Kejriwal government argued that the power to execute the decisions of the legislature should be complete and not subject to the decisions of another authority which is not accountable to the legislature.
But the Centre maintains that Delhi is a Union Territory where the LG is supreme, a position endorsed by the HC.
In the past few years, Delhi HC has seen heated arguments between the Delhi government’s standing counsel and the LG’s representative in cases involving bureaucrats and the services department. The fallout was visible as recently as last month when the LG had appointed an additional solicitor general to represent him in cases filed by then chief secretary M M Kutty and PWD boss Ashwini Kumar challenging the Delhi Assembly’s summons to them. The top bureaucrats had also roped in independent lawyers outside the current pool of government standing counsels.
Last year, in the case of Assembly secretary Prasanna Kumar Suryadevara’s plea challenging disciplinary proceedings initiated against him by the Centre, heated arguments had erupted between the two lawyers on who would represent the services department.