SC verdict on Delhi-Centre power tussle: Celebrations erupt at AAP office, Delhi Secretariat

AAP supporters danced to dhol beats, burst firecrackers and distributed sweets at the party office and the Delhi secretariat here on Thursday to celebrate the Supreme Court ruling in favour of the city government in a power tussle with the Centre.In a unanimous verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the Delhi government has legislative and executive powers over services except for public order, police and land.Welcoming the verdict, the AAP said in a tweet in Hindi, The elected government will have the power of transfer-posting of officers.

AAP supporters danced to dhol beats, burst firecrackers and distributed sweets at the party office and the Delhi secretariat here on Thursday to celebrate the Supreme Court ruling in favour of the city government in a power tussle with the Centre.

In a unanimous verdict, the Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the Delhi government has legislative and executive powers over services except for public order, police and land.

Welcoming the verdict, the AAP said in a tweet in Hindi, ''The elected government will have the power of transfer-posting of officers. Officers will work only through the elected government.'' The Lieutenant Governor will have no power over the officers to stop the work of the people of Delhi, it said.

At the AAP office on DDU Marg, workers smeared each others' faces with 'gulaal' and distributed ladoos. Cabinet ministers Gopal Rai, Atishi and Saurabh Bharadwaj also joined the celebrations after addressing a press conference at the party office.

A few metres from the party office, AAP workers danced to dhol beats and burst firecrackers outside the Delhi Secretariat ahead of a meeting of Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal with his Cabinet ministers.

AAP MLAs Kuldeep Kumar and Somnath Bharti also shook a leg. MLA Rituraj Jha was seen playing the drum along with Adil Ahmad Khan, chairman of one of the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committees.

Ministers Rai, Atishi and Imran Hussain garlanded Kejriwal when he reached the Delhi Secretariat, while their Cabinet colleague Kailash Gahlot fed the chief minister sweets.

Asserting that an elected government needs to have control over the administration, a five-judge constitution bench, headed by Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, said the Union Territory of Delhi has ''sui generis (unique) character'' and refused to agree with the 2019 judgement of Justice Ashok Bhushan that the Delhi government has no power over the issue of services.

This put an end to the eight-year-old dispute between the Centre and the Delhi government triggered by a 2015 Union Home Ministry notification asserting its control over services.