Was showdown over assembly panels a precursor to standoff?

The Union home ministry on Monday introduced a bill in Lok Sabha to amend the government of National Capital Territory act (GNCTD Act).

An exchange of letters between Delhi’s lieutenant governor (L-G) Anil Baijal and assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel in 2017 may have been the precursor to the Union government’s decision to bring in a new law that may tilt the balance of power in the Capital away from the legislature, the speaker said on Tuesday.

(From left) Delhi L-G Anil Baijal, chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and assembly speaker Ram Niwas Goel. ( Raj K Raj/HT PHOTO)

The Union home ministry on Monday introduced a bill in Lok Sabha to amend the government of National Capital Territory act (GNCTD act). The bill, among other things, said “government” in Delhi will mean the L-G in context of all legislation, and the assembly “shall not make any rule to enable itself or its committees to consider the matters of day-to-day administration or conduct inquiries”.

“The part of the amendment that talks about Delhi assembly committees and rules clearly has its origin from the 2017 message from the L-G,” Goel told HT, referring to the confrontation that took place when the assembly, in May 2017, inserted four clauses in the house business rules that allowed it to set up department-related standing committees, or DRSCs.

Four months later, on September 13, 2017, L-G Baijal sent a letter to the speaker asking him to withdraw the rules since it gave more powers to the assembly committees compared to the ones formed under the Lok Sabha rules.

Baijal said the Delhi assembly’s new rules did not include a specific clause found in the Lok Sabha rules, which state that the committees “would not consider matters of day-to-day administration of the departments concerned”.

The L-G tabulated a comparison of both rules, while particularly objecting to the Delhi committees having the power to take up matters of “public importance concerning the respective departments and carry out scrutiny, inquiry and investigation”.

Replying to this, on September 20, 2017, the speaker asked L-G to revisit the matter with the help of “true constitutional experts”. HT has seen copies of both letters.

“I remember telling the L-G that his message was based on a fundamentally flawed premise that the Delhi assembly rules have to be identical to those of the Lok Sabha rules. In fact, the rules of no two legislative bodies are identical. Not even those of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha,” said Goel.

“Just because the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is unable to win elections in Delhi, it is now trying to take control over Delhi by hook or by crook. In that case, what is the need to conduct elections in the first place and waste the taxpayers’ money?” Goel added.

The L-G’s office did not respond to queries seeking comments.

Delhi’s administrative framework is unlike any other region in India. As a Union territory, it is governed by the 1991 GNCTD Act that provides for an elected assembly and an L-G appointed by the Union home ministry. But unlike full states, several important departments, such as land, police and personnel appointments, don’t come under the purview of the city government.

The leader of Opposition in Delhi assembly, BJP’s Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, said that the AAP has been misusing its huge majority in the House. “They drafted new assembly rules in a fashion which allowed them to form committees empowered to inquire into day-to-day administrative functions. Now, the Delhi government does not have the services department directly under it and, hence, they cannot transfer officers. So, the AAP government is using these committees to build pressure on officials who refuse to break protocols. The L-G should have the last say on the matter of formation of such committees. The central government, through the new Bill, is heading in the right direction,” Bidhuri said.

PDT Achary, former secretary-general of Lok Sabha, said Goel’s contention that no law states that the rules of a legislative assembly need to be similar to Lok Sabha is correct. “The independence of every legislative assembly to frame its own rules is guaranteed under the Constitution of India. Each legislature is the master of its proceedings and is free to frame its rule, but the only condition is it should be within the Constitution,” he said.

Achary asked if the assembly or its committees are not able to enquire into administrative matters, how will accountability of the executive be ascertained.

A senior government official said under the Aam Aadmi Party government, the assembly committees came to the limelight as they started enquiring into matters relating to municipal corporations, the 2020 north-east Delhi riots, and alleged scams in state-run cooperatives.

On December 4 last year, the House committee on municipal corporations issued a notice seeking certain information regarding the accounts of the three MCDs.

This was challenged by the standing committee chairperson of the South Delhi Municipal Corporation in the high court. The MCDs got a stay order on the House panel’s notice, and the case is ongoing.

“Similarly, the assembly committee on peace and harmony, which is probing into the northeast Delhi riots of February 2020 had summoned Facebook India’s CEO, the social media giant then moved the Supreme Court, which gave a ruling in the company’s favour,” said the official, who asked not to be named.