Kejriwal blames NDA for weakening Delhi's Anti-Corruption Bureau, but action based on UPA groundwork

NEW DELHI: Arvind Kejriwal may have blamed the Narendra Modi government for weakening Delhi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau (ACB) that is probing a case against Reliance Industries chairman Mukesh Ambani and ex-petroleum minister Veerappa Moily but responsibility for this may lie elsewhere.
ET spoke to multiple officials in the government to learn that it was the previous UPA administration that did all the groundwork for a notification issued by the home ministry on July 23 specifying that the ACB’s powers would apply only to the officers and employees of the Delhi government. This effectively rules out the possibility of the ACB in future probing a case against any central government officials, which is under the purview of the CBI.

A home ministry official said the law ministry under Kapil Sibal had written to the home ministry in March asking for ACB’s powers to be examined as the present position could lead to a “constitutional crisis/imbalance” since ACB’s jurisdiction extended to all officials posted in Delhi. This was after the ACB booked Ambani and Moily in February in the gas pricing issue on the orders of Kejriwal, then Delhi chief minister.

The official said MHA under Sushil Kumar Shinde prepared a draft executive order in April, divesting ACB of the blanket powers, and submitted the same to the law ministry for legal vetting. “The law ministry did not reply on the same in the tenure of the previous government. A reply finally came in late June from the law ministry after the new government had taken over,” the ministry official said.

The reply, vetted by the standing counsel of the government who was appointed during the UPA’s tenure, is believed to have said that the draft executive order was “legally sound” and a notification could be issued. The home ministry did so on July 23, rescinding the blanket powers given to ACB in 1993. “Hence, both the UPA and BJP government seemed to be on the same page on this,” another top official said. MHA officials said the July 23 notification “does not have retrospective effect” and should not impact the FIR lodged by ACB against Ambani and Moily. “Reliance has filed a plea for quashing of the FIR before the Delhi High Court which will take a call,” a law ministry official said. The Delhi government told HC on Tuesday that ACB had no powers to probe the matter after the July 23 notification.