Delhi cannot claim state status via judicial order: Centre

NEW DELHI: The central government argued in the Supreme Court on Tuesday that the National Capital Territory of Delhi was never intended to be a state and cannot claim the status of a state through a judicial order. Nor does the NCT government enjoy any exclusive, untrammelled vertical powers, it said.

ASG Maninder Singh made these points before a five-judge bench led by CJI Dipak Misra which is hearing appeals by the Delhi government against an order of the Delhi HC, which had ruled against it in the raging row with the Centre over division of powers.

“Parliament in its wisdom has not conferred the status of a state on the NCT of Delhi. They cannot demand such a status through a judicial interpretation,” Singh contended. “Both the text of the law and the context of the law, no special status was intended,” he said.

Singh argued that neither did the government of the NCT of Delhi enjoy uncontrolled, virtually exclusive power as was being argued by its counsels. “Delhi is under continuous control of the President in all its affairs,” he said. “Any other interpretation would be doing a violence to the Constitution.” The NCT of Delhi cannot be made a state or conferred the status of a state government, Singh argued.

Delhi has to remain a union territory to deal with the concerns of the common man while the central government retains overall control, through the President, he said.