Advocates walk past the Supreme Court of India building in New Delhi. , Photo Credit: PTI
The Supreme Court on Thursday made it clear that the Lieutenant Governor (LG) does not have wide-ranging executive powers over the national capital, and the Center should be mindful of the unique “asymmetric federal model” of governance adopted for Delhi.
A Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice of India DY Chandrachud held that the Lieutenant Governor can exercise executive power on behalf of the Center only in the three areas of public order, police and land in Delhi as provided in Article 239AA(3)(a) ) mentioned in
If the LG has a difference of opinion with the Council of Ministers of the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (GNCTD), he should act as per the procedure laid down in the Transaction Rules.
However, if Parliament enacts a law conferring executive power on any subject which is within the domain of the NCTD, the executive power of the LG can be modified to the specific extent provided in that law. This means that any change in the scope of the Lieutenant Governor’s power must be supported by a parliamentary law which is subject to judicial review by the court.
The court referred to Section 49 of the GNCTD Act which mandates the LG and the Delhi Council of Ministers to “carry out special directions issued by the President on specific occasions”.
The court referred to the ‘sui generis’ or special status granted to Delhi and said that “cooperative federalism” is the key to meaningful governance of the capital.
“While the NCTD is not a full-fledged State, its Legislative Assembly is constitutionally entrusted with the power to legislate on subjects in the State List and the Concurrent List… It has a democratically elected government that is accountable to the people of the NCTD. Under the constitutional scheme envisaged in Article 239AA(3), the NCTD was given legislative power which, though limited, is similar to that of the States in many aspects. In that sense, with the addition of Article 239AA, the Constitution created a federal model with the Union of India at the center and the NCTD at the regional level. This is the asymmetric federal model adopted for the NCTD,” observed Chief Justice Chandrachud.
‘Unique relationship’
NCTD cannot be incorporated as a unit of the Federation. “In the spirit of cooperative federalism, the Union of India should exercise its powers within the limits created by the Constitution. The NCTD, being a distinctly federal model, must be permitted by the Constitution to function in the domain chartered for it. The union and NCTD share a unique federal relationship. This does not mean that the NCTD has been incorporated into the entity of the Union, as it is not a ‘State'”, the court highlighted.
Accordingly, the LG, the court said, can act in its discretion only in two classes of cases.
“First, where the matter relates to issues which are beyond the powers of the Legislative Assembly and where the President has delegated powers and functions in relation to such matter to the Lieutenant Governor; and secondly, such matters as are required by law to act in his discretion or where he is exercising judicial or quasi-judicial functions,” ordered Chief Justice Chandrachud.