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government has any right to be in power for even one day. The chief minister should answer as to why such a situation has arisen?” Bharatiya Janata Party MLA Vijender Gupta told ANI.

The BJP on Thursday demanded chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s resignation on “moral grounds”(PTI)

Two Delhi, Andaman and Nicobar Islands Civil Service (DANICS) officials posted with the home department — special secretary (prisons) Subhash Chandra and special secretary (prosecution) Yashpal Garg — were suspended on Tuesday for “insubordination” after they allegedly refused to sign cabinet notes pertaining to a salary hike for public prosecutors and prison staff.

“Chief minister Kejriwal should immediately resign on moral grounds. The two officers were suspended without any reason because they refused to accept the illegal deeds of the chief minister,” Gupta added.

The DANICS officers association termed the suspension of their colleagues as “illegal” and has written to the Union home ministry requesting the order be declared “null and void”.

“The appointing and disciplinary authority for DANICS officers is the President of India, acting through the ministry of home affairs, and not the home minister, government of the national capital territory of Delhi, as specified under the rules governing disciplinary proceedings. The illegal order of suspension issued by the honourable minister (home) under CCS (CCA) Rules is strongly condemned,” a resolution adopted by association members on Wednesday said and sought to explain why the suspension order was illegal.

Amid the fresh round of confrontation with the AAP government, the Centre on Thursday termed ts decision to suspend two DANICS-cadre officers as ‘non est’ (does not exist) and said the two officers should be considered deemed to be on duty.

The Home Ministry is issuing a formal order terming the suspension order of the two DANICS cadre officers by the Arvind Kejriwal government as null and void.

In a show of solidarity, the AGMUT (Arunachal Pradesh-Goa-Mizoram-Union Territories) cadre IAS association will join their protest by going on half-day casual leave.

Over a hundred DANICS officers hold key posts in the Delhi government and other agencies and, with the IAS officers, form the backbone of the Capital’s administration network.

This is the second time in a month that senior officers have taken up the suspension of their colleagues by the Kejriwal government. They had recently protested the suspension of two SDMs following a demolition drive by railway authorities in the Shakur Basti slums.