By pushing through an ordinance to undo the Supreme Court judgment on Delhi, the Centre sent a clear signal in May this year that the elected government of India’s capital city cannot function independently. The matter is now before the Supreme Court again and Parliament is scheduled to vote on it this Monsoon Session. But if recent events are any indicator, it is unlikely that there is an end in sight. Over the last few weeks, the Lieutenant Governor has dug his heels in and taken numerous decisions that test the boundaries of constitutional propriety.
While Centre-State tussles in India are not new, the number of conflicts and their intensity seem to have increased in recent years — perhaps a direct result of concentration of power in the Centre.
Over the last two years, the national Capital seems to have become the poster child of such conflicts. Problems in Delhi escalated with the GNCTD (Amendment) Act that was hastily pushed through Parliament in April 2021. This legislation tipped the power balance decisively in favour of the Centre (via the LG), effectively taking away all authority from the duly elected government and rendering it toothless. In doing so, we let political considerations triumph over practical realities, and disregarded lessons from the 1950s when similar jurisdictional battles brought Delhi’s administration to a standstill.
Functional autonomy
In most countries, capital cities have narrower functional autonomy than full states. This is understandable since a capital city is also the seat of the nation’s government, but no other major capital city is as big as the area (and population) covered by NCT Delhi, and in no other federation is the capital’s government as hamstrung as in Delhi. Even in the US, Washington DC is a ‘federal district’ with the local government in the region having limited functional autonomy. But while DC legislation can be overturned by the US Congress (its Parliament), this power is not vested in a nominated executive. More importantly, unlike Delhi, there is no interference in day-to-day administrative decision-making. For governance in Delhi to improve, it is therefore crucial that responsibilities are clearly delineated and the elected government in Delhi is empowered to be able to manage its day-to-day affairs. However, a purely technical solution is unlikely to work if the underlying political issues are not resolved.
While Delhi is a special case, one could argue that there is reasonable legal clarity through the Constitution and Supreme Court rulings on the limits of Central interference in State affairs. But this has still not prevented the escalation of Centre-State conflicts. Consider the case of Tamil Nadu that recently sought the removal of the State’s governor on the grounds of “unconstitutional functioning” and for obstructing its policy agenda. In March this year, Telangana petitioned the Supreme Court to compel governors to sign Bills passed by State Assemblies. In November last year, the Kerala government decided to bring an ordinance to divest the governor of the post of university chancellor, just like West Bengal did a while earlier. Ten States have also withdrawn general consent to the CBI accusing it of political bias and working at the Centre’s behest.
There is, therefore, no easy fix to Delhi’s governance problems. As of today, the Opposition does not have the numbers to defeat the ordinance in Parliament (this could of course change). Even if the law is later challenged in court, a judicial order delineating powers will not work if the parties involved keep trying to undermine it through creative interpretation, as they have been doing over the past few months.
Therefore, it is only the citizens of Delhi who can change the political dynamic and check the overreach of power by calling out the one-upmanship and pushing their elected representatives to work in the interest of Delhi. The conflict being witnessed today is a political issue, that ultimately needs a political solution.
The writer is the co-founder of Young Leaders for Active Citizenship that works to deepen citizen engagement in India’s democracy