{"id":14424,"date":"2021-03-17T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2021-03-17T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/current_affairs\/uncategorized\/17-03-2021\/government-of-national-capital-territory-of-delhi-amendment-bill-2021-2\/"},"modified":"2025-07-31T17:36:26","modified_gmt":"2025-07-31T12:06:26","slug":"government-of-national-capital-territory-of-delhi-amendment-bill-2021-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/current-affairs\/17-03-2021\/government-of-national-capital-territory-of-delhi-amendment-bill-2021-2","title":{"rendered":"Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>In News<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>Recently, the <strong>Ministry of Home Affairs<\/strong> (MHA) has introduced the <strong>Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021<\/strong> in <strong>Lok Sabha<\/strong>, which gives <strong>more discretionary powers to the Lieutenant Governor<\/strong> (L-G) <strong>of Delhi<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Legislation and Powers of Delhi Legislature<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Delhi is a <strong>Union Territory with a legislature<\/strong> and it <strong>came into being in 1991<\/strong> under <strong>Article 239AA <\/strong>of the Constitution inserted by the <strong>Constitution (Sixty-ninth Amendment) Act, 1991<\/strong>.\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Article 239AA:<\/strong> The Council of Ministers will aid and advise the L-G in matters where the Legislative Assembly has the power to make laws except where the L-G can exercise discretion.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>As per the existing Act, the<strong> Legislative Assembly of Delhi <\/strong>has the<strong> power to make laws<\/strong> in <strong>all matters except public order, police and land<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>About the Amendment Bill<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It proposes to <strong>amend Sections 21, 24, 33 and 44<\/strong> of the 1991 Act.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Restriction on laws passed by the Assembly<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>amendment to Section 21<\/strong> seeks to <strong>clarify the expression<\/strong> \u201c<strong>Government<\/strong>\u201d, which in the \u201ccontext of legislations to be passed by the Legislative Assembly of Delhi\u201d shall mean the L-G of the NCT of Delhi \u201cconsistent with the status of Delhi as a Union Territory to address the ambiguities in the interpretation of the legislative provisions.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Assent to Bills<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>amendment to Section 24<\/strong> says that the L-G will not assent any bill passed by the Delhi Assembly that \u201ccovers any of the matters which falls outside the purview of the powers conferred on the Legislative Assembly.\u201d<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Rules of Procedure of the Assembly<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The <strong>amendment to Section 33<\/strong> will insert a clause that rules made by the Legislative Assembly of Delhi shall not be inconsistent with the Rules of Procedure and Conduct of Business in the House of People (Lok Sabha).<\/li>\n<li>It says that the <strong>Legislative Assembly shall not make any rule to enable itself <\/strong>or its Committees to consider the matters of day-to-day administration of the Capital or conduct inquiries in relation to the administrative decisions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>L-G\u2019s Opinion for Executive Actions<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>With regard to <strong>Section 44<\/strong>, the amendment holds that<strong> there is no structural mechanism for effective time-bound implementation<\/strong> of the said Section.<\/li>\n<li>Further, there is <strong>no clarity <\/strong>as to what proposal or matters are required to be submitted to L-G before issuing order thereon.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li>Further, the Bill provides that <strong>all such rules made before its enactment will be void<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Rationale Behind the Step<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It gives <strong>more discretionary powers to the L-G of Delhi<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It seeks to ensure that the<strong> L-G is granted an opportunity<\/strong> <strong>to give her\/his opinion before any decision<\/strong> taken by the Council of Ministers (or the Delhi Cabinet) is implemented, under the <strong>clause (4) of article 239AA<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It will also ensure that the <strong>LG is granted an opportunity to exercise the power entrusted<\/strong> under clause (4), in a <strong>select category<\/strong> of cases.<\/li>\n<li>It will<strong> promote harmonious relations between the legislature and the executive<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<li>It will further <strong>define the responsibilities<\/strong> of the elected government and the <strong>L-G<\/strong>, in <strong>line with the constitutional scheme of governance of Delhi,<\/strong> as <strong>interpreted by the Supreme Court<\/strong> (SC).\n<ul>\n<li>The Supreme Court (SC) in a <strong>July 2018 judgment<\/strong> and a <strong>February 2019 judgement<\/strong> has interpreted the provisions of Article 239AA relating to the structure of governance in the NCT of Delhi.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><strong>Criticism<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>It seeks to <strong>render the office of the Chief Minister a vestigial organ<\/strong> in the name of simplifying administration.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<ul>\n<li>It would snatch away from the residents of Delhi the <strong>accountability and answerability they sought from the elected representatives<\/strong> and hand them to a nominated official.<\/li>\n<li>The Bill <strong>seems to go against the federal principles of India<\/strong> and is a <strong>setback for popular representation<\/strong>.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/cities\/Delhi\/bill-to-make-l-gs-nod-must-for-all-delhi-govt-decisions\/article34075051.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Source: TH<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In News Recently, the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has introduced the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Bill, 2021 in Lok Sabha, which gives more discretionary powers to the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) of Delhi. Legislation and Powers of Delhi Legislature Delhi is a Union Territory with a legislature and it came into [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":14425,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21],"tags":[51,31,76,30],"class_list":["post-14424","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-current-affairs","tag-executive-judiciary","tag-government-policies-interventions","tag-gs","tag-gs-2"],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/wp-images.nextias.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/format=auto\/ca\/uploads\/2023\/07\/22229476268277current-affairs.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14424","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=14424"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14424\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":49846,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14424\/revisions\/49846"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14425"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=14424"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=14424"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nextias.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=14424"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}