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The GNCTD AMENDMENT BILL, 2021

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  • Post published:March 25, 2021
  • Post last modified:December 26, 2022
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Advocate Dr. Rau P S Girwar is an esteemed advocate and has been involved in the field of law since 2010 and has contested cases in the Supreme Court of India and various high courts including the Punjab and Haryana High Court, Delhi High Court, Indore High Court and various district and sessions courts.

He has an excellence and experience in civil, criminal, constitutional and service matters and has a wide range of experiences in various matters including money laundering, narcotic and murder cases.

This article has been written with assistance of his junior Kushaatula Puhanian, who is a second year law-student studying at the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, New Delhi.

Introduction:-

An uproar is always seen in the opposition whenever a law is passed by the Parliament and such an uproar was once again seen by the passing of the GNCTD Amendment Bill, 2021 which changed the meaning of the Government of Delhi by passing the power from the hands of the Council of Ministers or the Chief Minister of NCT of Delhi to the Lieutenant Governor of the NCT of Delhi. This article seeks to cover the features of the bill along with history of the governance of Delhi and some of the opposing notions for this bill.

The Governance Dilemma:-

The legislative assembly of Delhi has had an “on and off ” play in the constitutional machinery because of its position as the National Capital of the Country and also having size and population of a State making it difficult for the Centre to decide to consider it as a UT or a State. The Legislative assembly of Delhi was first created by the Government of Part C States Act, 1920 but was abolished in 1956, what happened further was that it was again established by the 69th Constitutional Amendment Act, 1991 followed by the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act, 1991 when the Union Territory of India was formally given the name of National Capital Territory of India by the constitutional amendment.

The Government of NCT of Delhi is what is referred to as the state government and it consists of the Lieutenant Governor as the executive, representing Delhi as the pillar of Centre and the Chief Minister as the state head, representing the government of Delhi being a state.

There always has been dilemma regarding the position of Lieutenant governor which was cleared by the Supreme Court in the case titled as Government of NCT of Delhi v. Union of India[1] wherein it the five judge bench had laid down that the Lieutenant Governor has limited powers and that he was bound by the advice of the Council of Ministers. An amendment has now been passed in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha seeking the change of executive head from the Chief Minister to the Lieutenant Governor.

Features of the bill :-

The GNCTD Amendment Bill, 2021 was proposed by the Union Home Minister, Amit Shah and was passed in the Lok Sabha on 05.03.2021 and was passed by the Rajya Sabha on 24.03.2021. This bill was proposed with the idea of promoting harmonious relations between the legislature and the judgment given by the 5-judge bench in the Supreme Court and for clarification of the ambiguities present with regard to the interpretation of the GNCTD Act. There are certain amendment that have been made in the bill with regard to the governance in the NCT of Delhi which have been summarized as under:

  1. It expresses the word Government as the Lieutenant Governor in any act made by the Legislative assembly.
  2. It seizes the power of the Legislative Assembly to perform the day-to-day functioning as according to the procedure laid down by it in relation to the administrative decisions.
  3. It characterizes any act which was made prior to the commencement of this amendment as void if made in contravention of any of the rule stated above.
  4. No executive action can be taken without the consent of the Lieutenant Governor in the form of an order, either special or general.
  5. The GNCTD Amendment Bill, 2021 also seeks to provide for rules made by the Legislative Assembly of Delhi being in consistency with the rules of the House of People i.e. the Lok Sabha.  
  6. It defines the responsibilities of the elected government and the Lieutenant Governor in parity with the constitutional scheme of governance of the NCT of Delhi as interpreted by the apex court.

Conclusion:-

It is currently being opposed by the opposition by stating it to be violative of not only the judgment given by the apex court but also it hampering federalism as is practiced in India. There are contradictory views regarding this as it has been time and again mentioned by the apex court that India has a federal system with a strong centre with more powers lying in the hand of the Centre than in the hands of the State.  

pdf for the GNCTD Amendment BIil, 2021 available here:  

[1] (2018) 8 SCC 501