New Delhi, September 7
It will be a paperless Constitution Bench hearing of the tussle between Delhi Government and the Centre for control over bureaucracy in the national capital.
A five-judge Constitution Bench led by Justice DY Chandrachud – which took up the matter on Wednesday—said it will be a “Green Bench” using no paper files during the hearing. IT staff of the top court were ready to train senior lawyers to enable them to function in a paperless manner, it said.
The Bench – which also included Justice MR Shah, Justice Krishna Murari, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice PS Narasimha—tentatively agreed to commence hearing from October 11 even as it said it will fix the timeline for hearing on September 27.
Earlier, the then CJI JS Khehar had on March 23, 2017 said in six to seven months the practice of filing of bulky petitions with annexure running into hundreds of pages will be done away with. However, the ambitious plan could not materialise.
The Delhi Government has challenged the validity of amended Government of NCT of Delhi Act, 2021 and Rule 13 of the Transaction of Business Rules, 1993 which allegedly gave more powers to Lieutenant Governor.
Accepting the Centre’s demand, the Supreme Court had on May 6 referred the contentious issue to a five-judge Constitution Bench even as it said the issue related to ‘Services’ alone shall be decided by the Constitution Bench as it was not dealt with by the previous Constitution Bench.
The Centre had said the issue should be referred to a Constitution Bench for a holistic interpretation of Article 239AA. Describing Delhi as the “face of the nation”, Solicitor General Mehta had defended the Centre’s control over transfers and postings of bureaucrats in Delhi even as Delhi Government contested it.
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