HC to hear plea against LG's power to refer bills to Centre

The Delhi High Court today agreed to hear on Tuesday a plea challenging the constitutionality of the law which gives the Lt Governor power to refer certain bills to the Centre before it is tabled in the Assembly.
The PIL assumes significance as the Delhi government's move to table the Jan Lokpal Bill before the Assembly has not received the LG's assent.
A bench of justices B D Ahmed and Siddharth Mridul renotified the PIL for hearing on February 18 saying it was not clear at the moment whether the bill has been introduced and under which statutory provision the LG had refused to give assent to its tabling.

"We can't go by news reports and heresay (on tabling of the bill). We don't know what Delhi government is doing. We don't know under what provision the LG has acted. Renotify on Tuesday (February 18)," the bench said.
The court also observed that nothing prevented the government from tabling the bill on the floor of the assembly and any illegality can be looked into by it at a subsequent stage also.
The PIL, filed by advocate R K Kapoor himself, questions whether it is mandatory, under Rule 55 of the Transaction of Business of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Rules, that the bills mentioned in the provision be referred to the Centre by the LG, before being introduced in the Legislative Assembly.

"Whether the Government of the National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD) is bound to seek reference by the Lieutenant Governor from the Central government with respect to every legislative proposal as mentioned in Rule 55 (1)(a) of the business rules," the petition states.