New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday set aside its interim direction to continue the services of professionals engaged as fellows at the Delhi Assembly Research Center whose contracts were terminated by the Assembly Secretariat.
Justice Subramaniam Prasad of the Delhi High Court said that since the Supreme Court had earlier decided not to stay the letter terminating the services of the fellow, the High Court should not have passed any interim order which was based on the orders of the Delhi Legislative Assembly Secretariat. But effectively prohibits. , Justice Prasad said.
The court’s order came on an application by the Legislative Assembly Secretariat and other authorities, seeking to vacate the interim order passed on September 21 on the ground that the matter was pending before the apex court.
Delhi BJP President Virendra Sachdeva has welcomed the court’s decision to stay the appointment of fellow in the Delhi government.
He said that Delhi CM Arvind Kejriwal should take moral responsibility in the illegal fellowship case and resign.
In the order, Justice Prasad said the July 5 letter was “specifically challenged” before the Supreme Court by the Delhi government as part of its petition against the Centre’s ordinance, which took away control over services from the city system. had been snatched away, and the petitioner’s contention that since no order has been passed by the apex court, the High Court can look into the issue.
“In the order dated 20.07.2023, the Apex Court decided not to stay the letter dated 05.07.2023. Learned counsel for the petitioner argued that since the Supreme Court in I.A. No order has been passed. No. 13505/2023 (against the July letter), it is open to this Court to consider it, it cannot be sustained,” the court said.
The court recorded that it was specifically argued before the apex court that the Lieutenant Governor had terminated the contracts of 437 consultants engaged with the statutory bodies under the Delhi government or the Delhi Legislative Assembly.
On September 21, the court had directed, on a plea by several dismissed fellows, that their services with the Delhi Assembly Research Center would continue till December 6 and they would be paid stipend.
Counsel for the petitioners had earlier argued that the fellows, who were appointed after following due procedure, were prematurely terminated in an unprofessional, arbitrary and illegal manner following a letter issued by the Services Department on July 5. Was.
According to sources, Fellows and Associate Fellows were appointed in Delhi Assembly and other departments and organizations of Delhi Government in gross violation of the constitutional provisions of reservation. The rights of marginalized communities (SC/ST) were kept aside while appointing such Fellows and Associate Fellows.
Even the appointments of such Fellows and Associate Fellows were made without the approval of the Lieutenant Governor.
This case is an example of how public interest is being defeated by the Delhi Assembly by first involving private individuals while violating the constitutional rights of the marginalized community (SC and ST) for reservation. The then Minister (Services)/Delhi Legislative Assembly filed the application. And appointing senior advocates to depose before the courts so as to join hands with the Fellows and Associate Fellows (i.e. the petitioners) to allow such gross illegalities to continue and thus act against the public interest .
“The Assembly has also appointed some political workers, Aam Aadmi Party volunteers, like Ratnesh Gupta (in-charge of Aam Aadmi Party in Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh) on salaries and allowances higher than the proportion of regular employees. Some volunteers are allegedly issuing instructions to senior officials of the department (example of DJB’s Ankit Srivastava),” sources said.
