Indian top court slams failure to form Delhi govt

---

FE Team | Published: October 29, 2014 00:00:00 | Updated: November 30, 2026 06:01:00

---

NEW DELHI, Oct 28 (agencies): India's top court slammed top officials Tuesday for dragging their feet in forming a new government in the national capital more than eight months after the last administration resigned in chaos.
New Delhi, a city of some 17 million people, has been without a proper
government since February, when the capital's firebrand chief minister Arvind Kejriwal quit to protest the blocking of an anti-corruption bill.
The Supreme Court urged authorities and political parties to resolve the impasse, saying Delhi residents deserved a democratically elected government.
"We gave you enough time but nothing has happened so far," Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, who heads a five-judge bench, told the court.
"The people of Delhi have a right to have a democratically elected government and not be ruled by the president," he said.
The court was directing its criticism at Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and the national government which have been running the city-state since Kejriwal quit as head of a minority administration.
Kejriwal, an anti-corruption campaigner and a self-described "anarchist", had only taken power 49 days before his shock resignation.
He has since been demanding fresh elections in the capital, a move opposed by the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which has the biggest number of seats in the Delhi assembly.
Kejriwal's upstart Aam Aadmi (Common Man) Party lodged a petition in the Supreme Court seeking new polls in the hope of strengthening its fortunes.
The court said Tuesday that President Pranab Mukherjee has now instead given his consent to a proposal to invite the BJP to form a new government.
Kejriwal, a former tax official, and his party sent shockwaves through India's political establishment when it scored a series of stunning successes during local elections in Delhi last year.
The party rode a wave of support for its ideals of cleaning up corruption, tapping into seething voter anger over graft scandals that plagued the former national Congress party-led government.
Kejriwal's resignation left him free to campaign in the national election in May, which the BJP won in a landslide.
Kejriwal disappeared from the spotlight after his party fared poorly in the general elections, and he failed to win a seat now held by Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is the single largest party in the 70-member state assembly. In the December 2013 election, the party won 31 seats and one seat was won by its ally Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD).
But as the party did not have a majority in the assembly, Mr Kejriwal's Aam Aadmi Party (Common Man's Party) formed a government with support from the Congress party. AAP had won 28 seats while the Congress had won eight seats.
Mr Kejriwal quit on 14 February after 49 days in power after opposition politicians blocked his bill, which would have created an independent body with the power to investigate politicians and civil servants suspected of corruption.
Since then, the state has been under President's rule and governed directly by the federal authorities through Lieutenant-Governor Najeeb Jung.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court urged Lt-Gov Jung and political parties to resolve the impasse, saying Delhi residents deserved a democratically elected government.
"We gave you enough time but nothing has happened so far," Chief Justice HL Dattu, who heads a five-judge bench, told the court.
"The people of Delhi have a right to have a democratically-elected government and not be ruled by the president," he said.
Federal officials told the court that the president had agreed to Lt-Gov Jung's suggestion that the option of forming a "popular government" should be explored and that the BJP was being invited to form the government.