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The High Court on Thursday ordered that the services of professionals engaged as Delhi Assembly Research Centre (DARC) fellows be continued till December 6 and stipends paid to them. The contracts of 116 DARC fellows were terminated by the Secretariat last month. Justice Subramonium Prasad pronounced the order based on a petition by 17 fellows and listed the matter for further hearing on December 6.
In its statement, the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) said, “It has been made clear that gundagardi [hooliganism] will not be tolerated in Delhi. The L-G is arbitrarily misusing his powers. Delhi will not be run by those who coerce and misuse their powers.”
In response, the BJP said the court will withdraw “the temporary relief” once it is apprised of “anomalies in the appointment of the Assembly fellows”.
The plea in the High Court contended that the services of the fellows, who were appointed after following due procedure, were terminated “prematurely in an unceremonious, arbitrary and illegal manner in the aftermath of a letter issued by the Services Department on July 5”.
The Services Department had on July 5 issued an order discontinuing the engagement of 437 private persons hired as advisers, fellows and consultants by the Delhi government. Based on this order, the Secretariat issued an order that “discontinued with immediate effect” the services of the Assembly fellows.
The fellows were hired after Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal inaugurated DARC in 2019. A similar programme — the Chief Minister’s Urban Leaders Fellowship — was also started in 2019. These schemes were launched to help the government speed up its projects and overcome the hurdle of dealing with bureaucrats who were either “non-cooperative” or “overburdened”, according to a source.
In its statement, AAP said Lieutenant-Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena had “illegally” expelled the Assembly fellows “as part of his campaign to stop all that work being done in the interest of the people of Delhi”.
“The L-G has been consistently working against the law and the Constitution. His job is to find new ways every day to cripple the Delhi government, causing inconvenience to the people. It was under his conspiracy that young professionals were removed,” the party said.
‘Temporary order’
Reacting to AAP’s statements, Delhi BJP spokesperson Praveen Shankar Kapoor said, “The court has just given a temporary order, which will be subject to final judgment after the Services and Finance Departments submit their views.”
Mr. Kapoor added that when the court is informed that “no service rules were followed in the appointment of the fellows and that caste-based reservation benefits weren’t given, it would withdraw the temporary relief”.
Published - September 22, 2023 01:05 am IST
