Delhi assembly: SC to hear AAP's plea

Plea said decision to keep assembly under animated suspension was arbitrary and illegal

The Supreme Court will hear Monday the Aam Aadmi Party plea challenging Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung's decision not to suggest to the centre the dissolution of the Delhi assembly as recommended by then chief minister Arvind Kejriwal's government.

A bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice N.V. Ramana agreed to hear the plea as counsel Kamini Jaiswal told the court that non-dissolution of the assembly would frustrate holding of the elections to the Delhi assembly along with those to the Lok Sabha.

The court was told that neither the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor the Congress was inclined or in a position to form the government, thus no purpose would be served by keeping the assembly in an animated suspension.

The decision not to dissolve the assembly, the AAP petition said, was taken despite the "categorical recommendation of the majority government of Delhi for dissolving the assembly".

The AAP plea said that the decision to keep the assembly under animated suspension was not only "arbitrary and illegal and in violation of the democratic rights of the citizens of Delhi but also malafide".

The petition said the motive behind not dissolving the assembly and holding fresh elections was to allow the Congress-led central government to rule Delhi after the party had lost in the December 2013 elections.

Pointing out that the apex court in the past had held that "representative government is an essential part of democracy", the AAP said the decision not to dissolve the Delhi assembly has deprived the citizens of Delhi of "their democratic right to have an elected popular government".

"Both in the constitution and the government of NCT Delhi Act, 1991, the power to order dissolution is not mere a discretionary power to be exercised at the whims of the executive government", and the decision not to dissolve the assembly would "thwart the election of the popular government and, thus, deny the citizens of Delhi their democratic right to have an elected popular government," it said.