Guwahati: The Supreme Court of India (SC) on Tuesday decided to create a five-judge Constitution bench to hear the legal argument regarding the range of the Center’s and the National Capital Territory’s legislative and executive authority over the management of services in Delhi in order to make a “authoritative pronouncement.”
Senior attorney A M Singhvi pleaded with a bench made up of Chief Justice N V Ramana, Justices Krishna Murari, and Hima Kohli to list the case for an urgent hearing. He was speaking on behalf of the AAP government.
Singvhi declared, “It is crucial. Please list it,” the CJI replied, “We’ll do it.”
The control of services in Delhi was a matter that the SC had earlier on May 6 referred to a five-judge Constitution bench.
The Delhi government led by the AAP strenuously objected to the Centre’s request that the disagreement over the authority over services be referred to a five-judge bench, therefore the bench delayed its decision on that request on April 28.
The Delhi government’s request follows a split ruling on February 14, 2019, in which a two-judge bench made up of Justices A K Sikri and Bhushan—who have since retired—recommended to the Chief Justice of India that a three-judge bench be formed to decide definitively on the matter of control over services in the national capital in light of its split ruling.