The three-member committee appointed by Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung has found several “irregularities” in the decisions taken by the CM Arvind Kejriwal-led Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government prior to the Delhi High Court’s August 4 judgement and this may lead to scrapping away of a few more decisions. Thus, the ongoing tussle between the Centre and Delhi government is likely to escalate, as the committee has submitted its report to LG Najeeb Jung. He is likely to examine the report this week and decide the course of action, based on the committee’s findings and recommendations.
The Delhi HC in its August judgment had strengthened the importance of LG’s powers in administering the capital. Subsequently, the LG named former CAG V K Shunglu, ex-CEC N Gopalaswami and former CVC Pradeep Kumar to examine around 400 government files for “infirmities” and irregularities”.
After the high court’s judgment, principal secretaries and Head of Departments in the Kejriwal government were directed to review cases where prior approval of the LG was necessary as per the rules but was not obtained. Contradicting from the HC’s orders, the Delhi government rejected the committee terming it “unconstitutional” and demanded LG to scrap the files and the panel to return them.
The committee divided the cases into three categories. The first category is where refinement of decisions made is possible. The second category relates to irregularities that cannot be corrected hence terming them illegal. The third category is of appointment of officers and “arbitrary” selection of advisers and lawyers at high salaries, reports The Times of India.
