'Ministers started witch-hunt, harassment of officers,' Centre justifies Delhi Ordinance in SC
The Centre has claimed before the Supreme Court that after the May 11, 2023 judgement, the Delhi government ministers “started a witch-hunt, harassment of officers, media trials, and street postures to influence the decision making”, while justifying its decision to promulgate the Ordinance taking away the control of services from it.
After the Constitution bench decision, the officers of the vigilance department were targeted by the elected government and "extremely sensitive" files pertaining to the alleged excise policy scam, Delhi CM’s new residential bungalow, documents pertaining to advertisements, Delhi’s power subsidy, etc. were taken into “unlawful custody”, it alleged.
In an affidavit, the Ministry of Home Affairs said the May 19 decision to issue an Ordinance was taken as the Parliament session was two months away. The written response was filed in a writ petition by the Delhi government challenging validity of the Ordinance.
"Any delay would not only have paralysed the administration of the national capital but would have embarrassed the entire nation within and outside the country," it said.
The Centre also said the Supreme Court, by its judgement, has already reinforced the powers of Parliament to bring a law as contemplated under Article 239AA of the Constitution.
"In view of the very rapidly developing embarrassing situation in the national capital, it was considered necessary not to wait till the next session of the House and bring an ordinance within the bound of Article 239AA in general and that of Article 239(3)(b) and Article 239AA(7) in particular, strictly in conformity with the judgments of this court," it said.
After the SC judgement on May 11, 2023, complaints were received from special secretary (Vigilance) and two other officers, referring to a serious incident of trespassing in the said officer's chamber and taking unlawful custody of certain files, it claimed.
The Ministry contended that specific targeting of the vigilance department in a hurried manner was, inter alia, on account of the fact that the office of the vigilance department contained certain files about which either investigations/inquiry were going on or contemplated and they were “extremely sensitive in nature”.
The affidavit said there were files pertaining to the alleged excise scam for which some ministers of Delhi government are in custody and investigations are on.
“The files pertaining to the expenditure incurred in the construction of new residential bungalow of the Chief Minister which is being enquired into under valid orders passed by the Central Government as the said subject indisputably falls within the domain of the Central Government," it said.
The MHA said the files containing the documents pertain to advertisements used for furthering the political campaigning of the political party.
The elected government remained arrogant to the official duties of the concerned officers and handled the whole affair in a highly insensitive manner and also humiliated the senior officers and subordinate officers of the vigilance department, it said.
Among others, the file also related to extending power subsidy to private companies ignoring the outstanding dues from these companies like BSES and BYPL to the tune of more than Rs 21,000 crore, which is under inquiry by the CBI, the affidavit said.
“In fact, the office of the Special Secretary [Vigilance] in which the aforesaid files were lying, was sealed on the directions of the Hon'ble Minister (Services). This act also received negative global attention since it has always been an endeavour of all GNCTD government in the past to act in a diplomatic, matured way and not to make a global spectacle of the nation's capital in the age of electronic media and social media,” the affidavit said.
The affidavit said two days after the sealing of the office of the special secretary (Vigilance), where the files of those nature were kept, the de-sealing was done at the behest of the political establishment of the elected government to enable them to have access to the vigilance files and have them photocopied, an exercise that surprisingly started at 11 pm and continued up to 2:30 am (middle of the night under the gaze of TV cameras).
“Such a thing happening in the capital of the nation not only took the citizens of the nation by shock, but also became a matter of huge embarrassment at international level, since this entire exercise was also covered by electronic media. The above incident also led to filing of an FIR," the affidavit said.