The Supreme Court on Friday refused to entertain a plea filed by the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) challenging the alleged decision of the Lieutenant Governor (LG) to freeze its funds.
Asking the DCPCR to approach the Delhi High Court, the Supreme Court said that it can’t entertain every issue between the Delhi government and the LG. A bench of Chief Justice D Y Chandrachud, Justice J B Pardiwala and Justice Manoj Misra said that not every issue between the Delhi government and the LG could be brought before the Supreme Court by invoking Article 32 of the Constitution to seek remedy for the enforcement of fundamental rights.
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CJI Chandrachud told senior advocate Gopal Sankaranarayanan, who appeared for the DCPCR, that the Supreme Court is primarily concerned with adjudicating broader constitutional issues.
“Mr Sankaranarayanan, what’s happening is every dispute, all and sundry, between the Delhi government and the LG is coming here… It’s (the top court) to entertain some broader constitutional issues, now it must go to the High Court. Everything between the (Delhi) government and the LG comes here, every two days. Yesterday the Bus Marshal scheme was discontinued, we got a petition under Article 32,” the CJI told Gopal Sankaranarayanan.
Apprising the bench that the Commission functions independently of the Delhi government, senior advocate Sankaranarayanan said that the Central government freezes everything that the Delhi government is doing.
“You conduct whatever you want but don’t freeze our money. How can 6 million children of the State be told that not a penny is going to come to the Commission? They freeze everything that the Delhi government is doing. But I am an independent Commission, I am required by the Parliament to function independently,” Sankaranarayanan argued.
