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Amit Shah to table key Delhi services bill in House today
The bill aims to replace an ordinance promulgated on May 19 to allow the Centre to retain control over the bureaucracy in Delhi.
Union home minister Amit Shah will introduce the much-anticipated Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Lower House on Tuesday, according to a Lok Sabha bulletin issued on Monday evening.
The bill aims to replace an ordinance promulgated on May 19 to allow the Centre to retain control over the bureaucracy in Delhi and effectively overrides a May 11 Supreme Court judgment, which handed the charge of the Capital’s bureaucracy to the elected government, excluding departments connected to police, public order and land.
Also read: Deadlock persists in Parliament as Manipur discussion stalls
A senior Lok Sabha official said the parliamentary affairs ministry had sent a notice on Monday afternoon to the Lower House secretariat to introduce the bill on Monday itself. But it didn’t happen. In the revised list of business of the House for Tuesday, the officials have slotted the bill for introduction.
The Opposition parties, which formed the INDIA alliance last month, have been protesting since the beginning of the session to seek the Prime Minister’s statement on Manipur, is likely to halt its protests on Manipur to focus on the Delhi bill.
“We will oppose the introduction of the Delhi bill in the Lok Sabha on Tuesday,” said a senior Opposition leader. The INDIA parties are trying to muster their full strength in both Houses to stall the bill.
The Rajya Sabha is expected to discuss the bill next week.
Officials pointed out that the bill will only be introduced on Tuesday and a separate date and time will be allotted for debate and passage of the legislation.
A review of the text of the bill, seen by HT, suggested that the document has at least three crucial changes, including dropping a contentious provision apparently meant to undo the effect of a May 11 Supreme Court ruling that rested control of Delhi’s administration with the city’s elected government.
It also proposes to change the manner in which tribunal heads are to be appointed in the national capital, assigning some prerogatives to the lieutenant governor now, as opposed to the ordinance’s approach of the final signatory being the President of India.
The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi had earlier called the ordinance “illegal”, “unconstitutional” and a “black law”. AAP MP Sanjay Singh had been suspended from the Rajya Sabha due to unruly behaviour arising out of his vehement opposition to the bill.
Also read: AAP issues whip as contentious Delhi bill expected to be taken up in Parliament
Indeed, senior AAP leaders, including party chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, criss-crossed the country to rally support against the ordinance. The party also hinged its entry into the INDIA grouping on the Congress taking a stand on the ordinance.
The Union government has said, “The bill is being brought as a result of the pronouncement of the order of the Constitution bench of the Supreme Court in which the legislative and executive power over “services” shall vest with the GNCTD. The conclusions drawn in the Constitution bench pronouncement pose certain challenges to the smooth administration of GNCTD which need to be addressed through appropriate legal interventions,” when it announced the bill will come in the monsoon session.
