LG should cry foul only when talks fail, Delhi government tells Supreme Court

The Delhi government on Thursday told the Supreme Court that the Lieutenant Governor ( LG) was only a “go-between” the Council of Ministers and the President and must only raise a red flag when the executive government acts without any authority and talks fail to resolve an issue.

“When you have governments of different ideologies at the Centre and Delhi, you can’t be at loggerheads on every issue of governance,” Delhi government counsel Rajeev Dhavan argued. “Only restraint will make governance work.”

He urged the court to work out a framework under which all three constitutional functionaries –– the President who appoints the Council of Ministers and the elected government and the LG –– work in tandem in furtherance of the common cause of good governance. He said the executive government in Delhi has been allocated over 100 departments through the business rules to run. “Such a vast expanse of departments be run by a single LG? It will require 40 LGs. The LG cannot run Delhi.”