Centre-AAP fight reaches court

The bitter row between the Centre and Delhi’s AAP government has now moved to the Supreme Court with the Central government filing a special leave petition challenging the Delhi High Court’s order which termed as ‘suspect’ a recent notification of the Union Home ministry barring Delhi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) from acting against its officials. The Home ministry’s stand is that the High Court did not hear out its arguments completely before delivering judgment, and over-reached its jurisdiction by commenting about the legality of the notification and the extent of the Delhi Lieutent-Governor’s constitutiol powers. In the notification, the Centre had given absolute powers to the LG in appointing bureaucrats while also clarifying that he need not ‘consult’ the Chief Minister on subjects like police and public order. Incensed at the Central government taking the LG’s side so openly, the AAP government retaliated by getting the Delhi Assembly to pass a resolution holding the notification completely ‘unconstitutiol, illegal and invalid’. Arvind Kejriwal is now reportedly contacting the Chief ministers of non-BJP ruled states like Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal to warn that the Centre’s notification is detrimental to India’s federal structure and may adversely impact their states as well. It remains to be seen whether the AAP leadership can use this opportunity to break the shackles of Delhi and move beyond to forge an all-India opposition. But Kejriwal is yet again allowing his confrontationist agenda to undermine effective governce, which is a pity for the denizens of Delhi.