Stage set for big fight on Delhi bill as Parliament resumes

A senior Lok Sabha official said the Delhi services bill may be introduced in Lok Sabha before being taken to the Rajya Sabha.

Parliament is set for another rocky session this week, with the Centre likely to introduce the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, which, if passed, will replace an ordinance that gives the Union government control of the national capital’s bureaucratic set-up.

Parliament is set for another rocky session this week

The House is also likely to take up a debate on a no-confidence motion moved by the Opposition’s Indian National Developmental Inclusive Alliance (INDIA) grouping, which will try to corner the government on the violence in Manipur.

A senior Lok Sabha official said the Delhi services bill may be introduced in Lok Sabha before being taken to the Rajya Sabha, where the Opposition is better-placed to contest the proposed law.

“The nodal ministry has informed us that it wants to bring the bill to replace the Delhi ordinance in the Lok Sabha. We are waiting for the parliamentary affairs ministry’s notice to list the new bill in the agenda of the House,” said the official.

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.

Though the legislative agenda for Monday doesn’t mention the Delhi services bill, the Union government can bring the bill in at any point — even Monday — without prior information in the House, through a supplementary agenda.

The government used this route to bring in its resolution to scrap Article 370 and bifurcate Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories on August 6, 2019, in the Rajya Sabha.

Opposition leaders, however, said they are prepared for such a move this time.

Congress leader Manickam Tagore said, “We are preparing ourselves to the possibility of the government bringing in the Delhi bill on Monday. The leaders will discuss such a possibility at the meeting of the Congress MPs and the INDIA allies.”

The legislation will replace the ordinance promulgated by the President on May 19 to allow the Centre retain control over the bureaucracy in Delhi and effectively rolled back the May 11 Constitution bench judgment, which handed charge of the Capital’s bureaucracy to the elected government, excluding departments connected to police, public order and land.

Since it began on July 20, the Monsoon session of Parliament has been rocked by a pitched tussle between the Centre and the INDIA grouping over the situation in violence-torn Manipur. The Opposition alliance has demanded that Prime Minister Narendra Modi make a statement on the violence inside Parliament, even as Union home minister Amit Shah has agreed to address the matter on the floor of the House.

Congress lawmaker Gaurav Gogoi on Wednesday moved a no-confidence motion, which was admitted by Lok Sabha speaker Om Birla. The one-line motion — which says the House has lost its confidence in the Union council of ministers — poses no threat to the Modi administration, which holds a brute majority in the Lower House.

The Delhi services bill is likely to compound the crisis. The Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government in Delhi has called the ordinance “illegal”, “unconstitutional” and a “black law”.

Indeed, senior AAP leaders, including party chief and Delhi chief minister Arvind Kejriwal, crisscrossed 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 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.

A National Democratic Alliance (NDA) ally said the government is confident of the numbers in both Houses, pointing out that no bill was caught up in the Rajya Sabha in the Modi government’s second term.

The BJP-led NDA, however, will need either the backing of the YSR Congress Party or the Biju Janata Dal (BJD) to pass the Delhi legislation in the Upper House.

A senior Opposition member told HT “We have been indicated by the government that the Delhi bill will be tabled in Lok Sabha this week and it will be brought in the Upper House in the last week of the session.”

The monsoon session will end on August 11.

To be sure, the government can legally bypass the parliamentary test and promulgate another ordinance after the current one completes its shelf life of six months.

During the 10-year United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, the Centre promulgated 61 ordinances, some of which were re-promulgated a number of times.

According to PRS Legislative Research, the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha have utilised just 15% and 30% of their time so far, respectively. The government has introduced 12 bills and the Lok Sabha has passed eight pieces of legislation. The Rajya Sabha has cleared 3 bills.

On Monday, the Lok Sabha is scheduled to take up the amendments to the cinematograph bill and the amendments to the Registration of Birth and Date law. The Rajya Sabha has listed five bills including the amendments to the biodiversity and the forest conservation laws.