A five-judge Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court on Tuesday granted five weeks time to the Centre to decide on dissolving the Delhi Assembly “one way or the other” and paving the way for fresh elections.The Bench comprising Justices H.L. Dattu, J.Chelameswar, A.K. Sikri, R.K. Agrawal and Arun Mishra was hearing a writ petition filed by the Aam Aadmi Party, seeking dissolution of the Delhi Assembly, which is in suspended animation.
Additional Solicitor General P.S. Narasimha, on behalf of the Centre, said though there could be no time limit in such matters, it would, however, definitely take a decision.
He said in the five years of an Assembly’s life, only few months had gone by and it would not be unreasonable for the Lieutenant-Governor to take some more time to take a decision. The circumstances of the situation should be looked at from the perspective of the Lt-Governor and not from the point of view of a political party.
Justice Dattu told the ASG: “We are not looking at the political party before us. We are looking at the Delhi citizen’s point of view, who may say he has elected a representative who is drawing salary from taxpayers’ money and sitting idle. We only want the authorities to take a decision at the earliest when no political party is coming forward to form the government in five months. In a situation like this, why should the people suffer? We are only asking the authorities to react to the request made by the AAP. We want the Centre to come up with a positive result.”
Senior counsel Fali Nariman, appearing for the AAP, pointed out that since three BJP MLAs have got elected as members of Parliament, the strength of the BJP in the Assembly has come down to 28 from 31. It is now clear that no party is in a position to form the government and there was no reason for not holding the elections. Mr. Nariman said the Lt. Governor (Najeeb Jung), who ought to have taken a decision, had abdicated his responsibility by not taking any decision.Appearing for the Congress, senior counsel K. Parasaran said: “Whether the Assembly could be dissolved or whether it could be kept under suspended animation or whether government formation was possible were not within the scope of the judiciary to determine. When there is a deadline of one year prescribed by the law, the court has no role to play.”
Senior counsel Harish Salve appeared for the BJP. The Bench, while adjourning the hearing to September 9, asked the ASG to convey the feelings of the court to the authorities.
In continuation of the above, this is the comment of the Congress party, making a virtue out of necessity.
The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee on Tuesday demanded that elections to the Delhi Assembly be held at the earliest. This will help to protect the citizens from the ills of the deteriorating law and order situation and the collapse of the administrative machinery, it said.
Reacting to the Supreme Court’s directive on the plea filed by the Aam Aadmi Party on the dissolution of Delhi Assembly, DPCC spokesperson Mukesh Sharma said “jungle raj” now prevails in Delhi and so it has become essential that fresh elections are held at the earliest.
“The development works have stopped, law and order is deteriorating and corruption has risen. People are suffering on all counts. We therefore demand that the elections he held immediately,” he said. “The political atmosphere in Delhi has got vitiated and people now view politicians with suspicion. It would be healthy for the democracy if the polls to the Assembly were held as soon as possible,” he said.
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