New Delhi: In a setback for Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and the Opposition bloc INDIA, the Rajya Sabha on Monday passed the bill to replace an ordinance promulgated for handling the transfers and postings of senior officers in the Delhi government. While 131 members of the House voted in favour of the bill, 102 MPs opposed it. The division of votes was done through paper slips as there was a technical error in the automatic vote recording machine.
The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 passed the Rajya Sabha hurdle after Home Minister Amit Shah introduced it for consideration in the Upper House. The bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last week.
The ordinance was promulgated by the central government on May 19, a week after the Supreme Court handed over the control of services in Delhi excluding police, public order, and land to the elected government, currently headed by CM Arvind Kejriwal.
The Delhi government had then approached the Supreme Court for staying the ordinance. However, the apex court last month refused to grant an interim stay on the Centre’s ordinance and referred it to a Constitution bench.
Earlier in the day, Congress member Abhishek Manu Singhvi opposed the legislation during the discussion in Rajya Sabha and said that it is a ‘retrogressive bill’ that is ‘completely unconstitutional’. He also said it is a ‘frontal assault on the people of Delhi and violates federalism’.
Ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) MP Sudhanshu Trivedi, however, rebutted the claims of the Opposition and defended the bill. He said the ordinance and subsequently the bill required considering how the AAP government in Delhi undertook “rampant large-scale bureaucratic transfers” after the Supreme Court judgment.
Delhi services bill not aimed at ‘usurping power’: Amit Shah
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said in Rajya Sabha that the bill to replace an ordinance for handling the transfers and postings of officials in the Delhi government has been brought to safeguard the rights of the people and not to usurp the power of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government.
Replying to a debate on the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, Shah assured that the Upper House the objective of the bill was ‘only and only to provide efficient, corruption-free governance and popular government’.
He also assured the members that there is not even a single provision that changes the status of the system prevailing since the Congress regime.
Shah asserted that the bill is constitutionally valid and it does not violate the Supreme Court judgement from any angle.
He said Delhi is different from other states because it houses Parliament, embassies, the Supreme Court and regularly many state heads from different countries visit the national capital. Therefore, Delhi was made a Union Territory.
“Delhi is a Union Territory with an assembly with limited powers,” he said. In future, whoever fights elections in Delhi need to understand this character, Shah added.
Replying on the National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023 in the Rajya Sabha. https://t.co/4ttRqrSH2E
— Amit Shah (@AmitShah) August 7, 2023
He said, “We have not brought the bill to usurp power. This is to stop the encroachment of the Delhi government on the Centre’s powers.”
Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023
The National Capital Civil Services Authority will consist of the chief minister, chief secretary, and the principal home secretary of Delhi. The bill empowers the Authority to make recommendations to the Delhi Lieutenant Governor (LG) regarding transfers and postings of officials and disciplinary matters.
The bill also empowers the LG to exercise his sole discretion on several matters including those recommended by the National Capital Civil Services Authority, and the summoning, prorogation, and dissolution of the Delhi Legislative Assembly.
