PIL against AAP dharna at LG office comes up before Supreme Court

A PIL challenging the hunger strike called for by Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and other ministers of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was mentioned before the Supreme Court today..The matter was mentioned before the vacation bench of Justices S Abdul Nazeer and Indu Malhotra, which listed this matter for hearing on July 2, the day it reopens after the summer vacation..The petitioner stated that the dharna carried out at the Lieutenant Governor’s office by Chief Minister of Delhi Arvind Kejriwal and his ministers should be declared unconstitutional and illegal. A petition on similar lines is already pending before the Delhi High Court..The PIL filed in the Supreme Court by one Harinath Ram through Advocates Shashank Deo Sudhi and Dr. Shashi Bhushan prays for the Court to issue a direction to the High Court to hear the matter on an urgent basis, owing to the “extraordinary constitutional crisis surrounding the NCT of Delhi”..Interestingly, the Delhi High Court is scheduled to hear the matter on June 22, before the date fixed by the Supreme Court for its hearing..The petitioner also prays for the declaration of hunger strike called by Arvind Kejriwal and the cabinet ministers as “unconstitutional and illegal”. Alternatively, a prayer is also made for issuance of “comprehensive guidelines for the legislative members not to indulge into the acts of constitutional crisis including the strike for the executive bargaining in the interest of justice (sic).”.It is further contended that the hunger strike called by Kejriwal has led to “policy paralysis and administrative non functioning”, and that the entire government machinery was involved in power bargaining through this “illegal strike”. The petition notes,.“The instant confrontation between the Chief minister and the LG is a grim example of how politics has crept in the governance of the state. The state is crippled by the administrative paralysis as the state is having no constitutional administrator in respect to the area covered under the State list (sic).”.Chief Minister Kejriwal and other ministers of the AAP government have been on hunger strike at the LG’s office since June 11, protesting the ongoing strike being observed by IAS officers in the capital..Yesterday, a batch of petitions related to the whole chain of events was heard by the Delhi High Court, which questioned the actions of Kejriwal and others. The High Court Bench of Justices AK Chawla and Navin Chawla will hear the matter on Friday.