Delhi Services Bill Is ‘Completely Unconstitutional’, ‘Fundamentally Anti-Democratic’: Abhishek Singhvi

New Delhi: Congress leader Abhishek Singhvi on Monday termed the Delhi services bill “unconstitutional” and “anti-democratic” and appealed to all opposition parties in Rajya Sabha to oppose it with the warning that “someday this anti-federal knock will come” at their door too. He accused the government of bringing the bill out of “vendetta” and said it was against two verdicts of the Supreme Court Constitution bench.

The Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2023, will replace an ordinance promulgated by the Centre for handling the transfers and postings of officials in the Delhi government.

Initiating a discussion on the bill, which was moved by Home Minister Amit Shah for consideration in Rajya Sabha, Singhvi said no government in the past had ever tried to overrule the status of the Delhi government and accused the current dispensation of being a “control freak”.

“This bill is completely unconstitutional. It is fundamentally anti-democratic. It is a frontal assault on the regional voice and the regional aspirations of the people of Delhi. It violates all principles of federalism, all norms of civil service accountability, all models of assembly based democracy. It violates the basic structure,” he asserted.

He said that no government since 1992, when Delhi’s special constitutional status was created, tried to overrule two judgments of the Supreme Court constitution bench on the status of National Capital Territory.

“This government and this bill have done it all, something not done earlier,” he said, adding such a step has now been taken because of the “control freak” nature of the government whose “visiting card appears to be vendetta, whose identity badge is of a graceless and fuming electoral loser….”

He said the approach of the government is “to control by hook or crook, usually more by crook and less by hook”.

Singhvi criticised the provisions of the bill which he said seeks the “creation of an authority where the chief minister is in a minority, to empower two bureaucrats to overrule an elected chief minister and make the LG, a constitutional figurehead except in three areas, into a ‘Super CM’ and give powers to the LG to appoint heads of large number of regulatory agencies”.

Stating that this is not about any particular government in the NCT, he said, “It is the deliberate regression from a people’s government guaranteed to the people of Delhi 30 years ago. And hence it is a decimation of the most fundamental constitutional values….”

Asking all parties to collectively rise to oppose the bill, he said, “Someday this anti-federal knock will come at your door.”

This is a matter to ponder for those who are supporting this bill, he said, adding “what is happening with the Delhi government today could happen to you soon”.