SC to hear plea on non-dissolution of Delhi assembly

The Supreme Court will hear Monday an AAP plea challenging Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung's decision not to suggest the Delhi assembly's dissolution after chief minister Arvind Kejriwal resigned.

A bench of Chief Justice P. Sathasivam, Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice N.V. Ramana agreed to hear the plea after counsel Kamini Jaiswal said that the non-dissolution will come in the way of a fresh assembly election when the Lok Sabha polls are held.

The court was told that neither the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) nor the Congress was inclined or in a position to form a government after Kejriwal resigned Feb 14.

Thus, no purpose would be served by keeping the assembly in suspended animation, the plea said.

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

The AAP plea said the decision to keep the assembly under suspended animation 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 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 Jung's recommendation had deprived Delhi's citizens of "their democratic right to have an elected popular government".