Sisodia says LG sent ‘file’ on lawyers for Jan 26 cases to Prez

NEW DELHI: Deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia said on Saturday that lieutenant governor Anil Baijal overturned the Delhi cabinet’s move to appoint a panel of lawyers to argue cases linked to violence on Republic Day during a tractor rally by farmers, and added that the matter was referred to the President by the LG, who has also sent his list of 11 names for the panel.

The ongoing tussle between the Delhi government and the LG over the legal panel is the latest flashpoint between the state and the Centre.

Addressing a digital news briefing, Sisodia said that in the interim, Baijal approved a panel of 11 law officers chosen by the Delhi Police to argue the cases.

The LG’S office did not respond to queries seeking a comment.

On February 26, the Delhi Police sent a proposal to the state government’s home department seeking appointment of 11 law officers or advocates to represent the state in all cases related to the farmers’ agitation. However, the Delhi government maintained that it wanted its existing team of special public prosecutors (SPP) to argue the cases.

Baijal overturned the Delhi cabinet’s decision to appoint the panel of lawyers of its choice, the Aam Aadmi Party government said on Saturday. Chief minister Arvind Kejriwal said the Bharatiya Janata Party (Bjp)-led Centre should “respect democracy”. “The people of Delhi formed the AAP government with a historic majority and defeated the BJP. Let BJP run the country and let AAP run Delhi. Such interference in everyday work is an insult to the people of Delhi. BJP should respect democracy,” he tweeted in Hindi.

Sisodia said the Delhi Cabinet led by Kejriwal on July 16 decided that a panel of stateappointed prosecutors will deal with cases related to the January 26 violence.

“But today (Saturday), the LG reversed this Delhi government decision and sent the file to the President… What is the central government’s intent behind rejecting the panel of lawyers decided by the Delhi government? The Centre is afraid that the panel of lawyers appointed by Kejriwal will expose the conspiracy led by them against the farmers in court,” he said.

On July 1, LG Baijal and Delhi home minister Satyendar Jain held a meeting on the matter, but the issue could not be resolved, according to people aware of the matter. The same day, Jain added a note to the file saying that he urged the LG to “not insist on appointing SPPS on the behest of the Delhi Police”. On July 2, Baijal wrote a letter to Kejriwal, requesting him to convene a meeting of the council of ministers to decide upon the disagreement within a week.

Sisodia said the LG’S move was against the 2018 Supreme Court verdict and urged the Centre to stop interfering in the matters of the Delhi government.

He said: “As per the Constitution, the chief minister of the elected government of Delhi has been given the right to appoint lawyers. Overturning the decision of the Delhi Cabinet by the LG is entirely against the Constitution. If the appointment of lawyers is also to be done by the LG, what will happen to the rights of the government elected by the people as per the Constitution?”

“The Constitutional bench of the Supreme Court, including 5 senior judges, had clearly stated in its order that the Delhi LG has only two powers. Either the LG can agree with the decision of the elected government and act accordingly, and if the LG disagrees, then he may send his disagreement to the President. The Supreme Court had also said in its order that the LG has been given the power to refer a matter to the President only in extraordinary circumstances and not in every case,” Sisodia said.

The Delhi government and LG’S office had a similar disagreement last year over the appointment of state lawyers to argue cases pertaining to the north-east Delhi riots in which 53 people died, and over 600 were injured.

In 2018, differences of opinion surfaced over appointment of SPPS in the case of an alleged assault on former Delhi chief secretary Anshu Prakash.