MHA not worried about legal stands

NEW DELHI: As the debate on constitutional validity of the notification issued by the home ministry empowering the lieutenant governor to transfer IPS and IAS officers in Delhi threatens to reach the President or the courts, the Centre is confident it would stand the scrutiny of both the authorities.
The opinions sent by constitutional experts such as former solicitor general Gopal Subramanium and K K Venugopal to the Kejriwal government have called the notification “unconstitutional”.Home ministry sources said the two lawyers had based their opinions on certain “presumptions” and “misinterpreted” certain provisions. “The notification is based on sound legal opinion and will stand the scrutiny of any court,” said an official.
Sources said Subramanium has presumed that the President is not on board, which is incorrect. “Venugopal, on the other hand, has elaborated on his concept of democracy. His constitutional arguments will not stand test of the court.”
Both lawyers have raised the issue of Entry 41 of List II in the Constitution which deals with state powers over “services”. “They have misinterpreted it as being applicable to Union territories,” he said.
On the argument that the LG cannot communicate directly with civil servants and cannot call a state government decision null and void, MHA argues that being the administrator of the UT, the LG has all rights to do so constitutionally. It also says its notification just spells out the constitutional position.
Sources also said the crisis began taking shape when the ministry ordered transfers of close to 10 IPS officers in the state. Not only did Kejriwal send a showcause notice to chief secretary K K Sharma for not routing these transfer orders through the CM’s office but, a source said, even gave him a dressing down. Home ministry sources argue that most transfers are done by the state government and the LG takes a decision only on secretary-level officers which are few.