The Supreme Court on Friday refused to ask the Centre to respond to an affidavit filed by Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia levelling certain ‘political’ allegations against the Centre with regard to control over bureaucracy in the national capital.
“We will not ask the Centre to file a response to this affidavit. We will deal with the constitutional issues. We will step back from the actual arena of conflict,” a Bench led by CJI DY Chandrachud said after Additional Solicitor General Sanjay Jain vehemently objected to filing of an affidavit on the ongoing political slugfest.
“We will freeze the pleadings (filing of documents/affidavits) now and let the Constitution Bench take up the matter now. The opposite side (Centre) need not file a reply to the affidavit,” the Bench said.A five-judge Constitution Bench led by CJI Chandrachud is to take up the dispute on control over ‘services’ in the national capital on November 24, Jain pointed out. Other judges on the Bench are Justice MR Shah, Justice Krishna Murari, Justice Hima Kohli and Justice PS Narasimha.On behalf of the Delhi government, senior advocate Abhishek Manu Singhvi submitted that it was necessary to show how bureaucrats were refusing to obey orders of the elected government and the administration was getting paralysed on the ground.
