New Delhi: Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) national spokesperson Saurabh Bhardwaj on Sunday said the lieutenant governor cannot “obstruct” the work of the Delhi government and believed that he should give his assent to subjects already approved by the cabinet. . He further said that the lieutenant governor has not been entrusted with any independent decision-making power and is bound by the aid and advice of the cabinet and the elected government.
Speaking about the meeting between Arvind Kejriwal and VK Saxena on Friday, Bharadwaj alleged that the lieutenant governor termed the Supreme Court orders as an opinion piece after he was informed of their violations by the chief minister.
On July 4, 2018, a constitution bench of the Supreme Court passed an order stating that “no independent decision-making power has been delegated to the lieutenant governor (with reference to the transferred subjects)”.
“The LG is not accepting the Constitution Bench verdict. How can a person who does not believe in the Constitution be allowed to hold a constitutional office? When the CM apprised the LG how he was violating the orders of the Constitution Bench are doing, the Lieutenant Governor termed the order of the Supreme Court as an opinion. Ignorance of the law on the part of the Lieutenant Governor is no excuse.
“Only the elected CM and his government can give their opinion to the LG, they do not even have the right to refuse the aid and advice of the elected government. LG’s powers on ‘transferred subjects’ are minimal. So even he No independent decision-making power has been delegated,” Bhardwaj said.
He claimed that the LG has no jurisdiction to overrule, withhold or modify any decision and has to act as per the “aid and advice” of the elected government and its Council of Ministers.
The spat between Lt Governor Saxena and Chief Minister Kejriwal on Friday did not subside even after they met for over an hour, with Kejriwal alleging that as per the 2018 Supreme Court judgement, the LG has no independent decision-making power.
Refuting Kejriwal’s statements, a Raj Niwas official said that all the statements attributed by him to the LG were ‘misleading, patently false and fabricated and twisted to suit a particular agenda’.