(This story originally appeared in on Apr 27, 2024)NEW DELHI: A furious Delhi High Court on Friday lashed out at AAP govt over its failure to provide textbooks, stationery and other items to 2 lakh students in MCD schools, saying it had put personal interest above national interest.“You are arrogant to the core, this is arrogance of power at the highest,” the court said after govt blamed the MCD commissioner for not seeking funds.In scathing remarks, HC said Delhi govt was only “interested in appropriation of power” even as the govt counsel accused the lieutenant governor of failing to form the standing committee.A bench of acting chief justice Manmohan and justice Manmeet PS Arora also slammed Delhi govt for its submission that approvals of chief minister Arvind Kejriwal can’t be taken in this matter as he is in jail.AllUttar PradeshMaharashtraTamil NaduWest BengalBiharKarnatakaAndhra PradeshTelanganaKeralaMadhya PradeshRajasthanDelhiOther States “It is your choice that the CM wants to continue despite being in jail, it is your administration’s call. Now your minister says since the CM is inside, he can’t take a decision. National interest comes supreme, but you have placed your personal interest above it. You are forcing us to say it. We can’t allow children not to have textbooks,” the bench told govt counsel Shadan Farasat.It is the personal call of the chief minister if he wants the administration to be “paralysed”, the court remarked as it noted that from the start of April, students have not got textbooks, notepads or uniforms and are studying under tin roofs in some schools.HC said till now it had “politely” emphasised that national interest is “supreme” but “your client has placed personal interest on the highest pedestal, above the interest of the students, the children that are studying. We are going to give that finding.”
HC was dealing with a PIL by NGO Social Jurist, represented by advocate Ashok Agarwal, and had earlier summoned the MCD commissioner who blamed the absence of a standing committee, which has the power to award contracts worth more than Rs 5 crore, for the delay.
“Your client is just a person looking for more and more power.….I don’t know how much power you want. The problem is because you are trying to appropriate power…you are not getting it,” the bench said. It said people who lead must “carry everyone along” as it cannot be a case of “one-man upmanship.”
The court took a dim view of the submissions by Farasat, made on instructions from urban development minister Saurabh Bharadwaj. “We will record your statement that it is because the chief minister is in custody that the minister cannot do anything. If that’s his personal call, good luck to him….You are asking us to go down that track and we will come with full vigour. Don’t think we don’t have the guts to pass an order,” said justice Manmohan.
HC had prima facie said there could not be a vacuum in the absence of a standing committee, and in such a situation, the financial power has to be delegated by Delhi govt to another authority.
Highlighting the “admitted facts”, HC remarked that several projects concerning distribution of books and medicines were stalled and asked, “Don’t you have a heart? Don’t you feel for them? I don’t think you are seeing any of this. I think you are just shedding crocodile tears.”
It said Delhi government does not feel for the common man. “Desks and chairs are broken. Will the mayor like her children to study in a place where tables are broken?” asked the court, posting the PIL for directions on April 29.