SC may set up constitution bench to hear AAP-LG row

The Supreme Court on Monday said that it may set up a constitution bench to hear the appeal of Delhi's AAP government challenging Delhi High Court verdict holding that Lt. Governor had the primacy in the administration of the national capital.

A bench of Chief Justice Jagdish Singh Khehar, Justice D.Y. Chandrachud and Justice Sanjay Kishan Kaul said that a constitution bench may be set-up when court reopens after summer vacations after senior counsel Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the Aam Aadmi Party government, urged the court to hear the matter early.

The bench of Justice A.K.Sikri and Justice R.K. Agrawal had on February 15 referred to the constitution bench a batch of petitions filed by the Delhi government over conflict with the Union government over the powers of the elected government to administer the national capital.

While not framing the questions to be adjudicated by the constitution Bench, the court had asked the Union government and the Arvind Kejriwal government to argue their respective cases before the larger bench.

The Delhi government, through a clutch of petitions, has challenged the high court verdict, contending that the elected government can't be treated subservient to an overriding authority of the Lt. Governor. The hearing by the two judge bench of the Delhi government's appeals had also seen the court favouring a balance in the exercise of powers by the Delhi government and the Lt. Governor for good governance.

Delhi was given an assembly and an elected government through Article 239-AA incorporated in the Constitution by the 69th amendment in 1991. --IANS

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