Jung has exceeded authority: Legal experts

Senior lawyers Indira Jaising and Rajeev Dhavan have criticised Delhi Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung for rejecting appointment of an official by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

New Delhi: Senior lawyers Indira Jaising and Rajeev Dhavan have criticized Delhi Lt. Governor Najeeb Jung for rejecting an appointment of an official by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, with one of them saying that Jung had "exceeded his authority".

The two eminent lawyers submitted their legal opinion to the Kejriwal government on the tussle over the transfer and posting of Delhi bureaucrats. The AAP government had sought their advice after disagreements between Jung and Kejriwal snowballed into a major row. Jung's office, however, refused to comment on the issue, saying an official statement would be issued later on Tuesday. In his written advice, Dhavan said: "It is abundantly clear that the Lt. Governor has exceeded his authority and has turned the entire relationship between himself and the council of ministers on its head to jeopardise democracy and the constitution." An Aam Aadmi Party leader said that it sought the opinions from Jaising and Dhavan.

In her letter, Jaising said the political executive was "constitutionally empowered" to choose its own officers in accordance with the cadre. "Who will be the chief secretary or any other secretary of the government is a matter in which the governor has to yield to the will of the political executive which has been democratically elected," she said. She also said that the discretionary power to appoint a chief secretary can be found neither in the constitution nor in any statute. "These are not matters, by any stretch of imagination, which fall under the individual discretionary powers of the governor. Even otherwise, relying upon the provision to article 239 AA (4), the Lt. Governor cannot issue directions to appoint a chief secretary," she said.