New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Friday expressed its discontent at litigation between the Delhi government and the Lieutenant Governor (LG) on various issues coming before it, asking why should every dispute land in the apex court.
A three-judge bench led by Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud was hearing a plea by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) over the alleged freezing of its funds. The bench, also comprising justices J B Pardiwala and Manoj Misra, asked the DCPCR counsel to move the Delhi High Court with its grievance.
“What is happening is, every dispute, all and sundry, between the Government of the NCT of Delhi and the Lieutenant Governor, is coming here as a (Article) 226 petition (Article 226 of the Constitution deals with the power of the high courts to issue certain writs),” said the CJI. The bench said that on Thursday, it dealt with a plea by the Delhi government challenging LG V K Saxena’s decision to terminate the services of all civil defence volunteers working as marshals in DTC buses.
The apex court told senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, representing DCPCR, that his client should go to the high court and questioned, why should the apex court entertain this plea under Article 32. Sankaranarayanan submitted, how can six million children of the state be told that not a penny is going to come to the commission?
The counsel argued that this petition was a little different from other disputes between the Delhi government and the LG, which have come before the apex court so far. The counsel stressed that the commission’s money has been frozen. At this juncture, the CJI told him that the apex court had entertained pleas dealing with broader constitutional issues and that his client should go to the high court.
“Why are you bucking the Delhi High Court?”……everything between the Delhi government and the Lieutenant Governor is coming here every two days. Bus marshal scheme was discontinued and we got a petition…..”, said the CJI. Sankaranarayanan said the DCPCR is an independent commission and the tenure of its members has come to an end and, at present, the commission was not in a position to approach the high court afresh.
After hearing submissions, the apex court directed the apex court registry to transfer these proceedings to the Delhi High Court and the plea shall be re-numbered as a petition under Article 226 of the Constitution.
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