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| Court asks Arvind Kejriwal to justi |
| Court asks Arvind Kejriwal to justify stadium session for anti-graft Jan Lokpal Bill
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| INDIA
, 12-February-2014
3:6:4 AM |
| On Sunday, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal says he will present his anti-graft Jan Lokpal Bill to lawmakers for their review - not at the state legislature, but at a city stadium, with the public in attendance.
The city police had asked him to reconsider the venue for security reasons. Delhi's Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung had also implied that "the sanctity" of the legislative process could be undermined by the public session. Mr Kejriwal dismissed both concerns.
Today, the Delhi High Court has asked his government to explain why the stadium gathering is justifiable.
The location is just one of the many entanglements that Mr Kejriwal is grappling with for his pet proposal which creates an ombudsman or "Lokpal" to investigate corrupt government officers.
The Centre's top lawyers have said the bill cannot be debated by Delhi legislators till it is vetted by the union Home Ministry.
But even if Mr Kejriwal, who has emphatically dismissed that advice, ploughs ahead and manages to push the bill through the Delhi Assembly, it could end up in a political cul-de-sac.
Here's why. In December, Parliament passed a national Lokpal law. Legal experts have told the government that Mr Kejriwal's iteration for Delhi overlaps with the national version. So the constitutional head of Delhi, Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung, can reject Mr Kejriwal's proposal even if it is cleared by the Delhi Assembly.
The ombudsman agency for Delhi that Mr Kejriwal is proposing would be funded at least in part by the Centre, legal experts have said. So that gives the Centre the right to review the bill before it is debated or voted upon. Also, a law passed in 2002 requires all Delhi bills to be green-lit by the Centre before they are brought to the state legislature.
But Mr Kejriwal has pointed out that his predecessor and Congress leader Sheila Dikshit did not follow this procedure for at least 13 laws that were cleared for Delhi.
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