As many as 14 bills passed by the Delhi assembly were returned by the Home Ministry on Friday, saying that proper procedures were not followed by the AAP government while adopting legislations.
A senior Home Ministry official said since Delhi is a Union Territory, any bill it wants to adopt in the assembly has to be first sent to the central government for approval. If the Centre approves it, only then can it be moved for legislative approval.
When the assembly passes the bill, it has to go to the Lieutenant Governor and to the central government for Presidential assent, the official said.
The Delhi government didn’t take prior approval from the central government before passing the bills in the assembly.
Since proper procedures were not followed, all 14 bills were returned to the Delhi government for correction, the official said.
Since Arvind Kejriwal became the Chief Minister of Delhi, not a single bill passed in the assembly has been cleared by the central government.
Kejriwal has been repeatedly accusing the Narendra Modi-led government of hindering the AAP government’s work in Delhi.
NDTV quoted an AAP leader as saying:
If the Lokpal had been in place, corruption would been rooted out.AAP leader
The bills returned in the last few weeks include:
- Janlokpal Bill 2015
- Minimum Wages (Delhi Amendment) Bill 2015
- Delhi School (Verification Of Accounts and Refund of Excess Fee) Bill 2015
- Delhi School Education (Amendment) Bill 2015
- Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (Delhi Amendment) Bill 2015
- Bill to Amend Working Journalists
This development is likely to trigger a fresh dual between the AAP government and the Centre that have been locked in a face-off over various issues.
(With inputs from PTI.)
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