New Delhi: The Delhi government has approached the Supreme Court seeking permission to withdraw seven cases filed during the previous Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) regime that challenged the authority of the Lieutenant Governor (L-G) across various administrative bodies, including one overseeing efforts to clean the Yamuna river.
A bench comprising Justices Surya Kant and N Kotiswar Singh directed that the application submitted by the BJP-led Delhi government be listed for hearing on Friday.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, representing the Delhi government, informed the bench that the application seeks withdrawal of all seven pending cases, which questioned the L-G’s authority in multiple committees. These include panels related to solid waste management, the rejuvenation of the Yamuna, and others that had contested the validity of certain Acts and ordinances.
"These matters should not trouble this court anymore," Bhati remarked during the hearing.
Responding to the submission, Justice Surya Kant stated, “We will list all these cases for Friday and take up the application.”
One of the petitions in question pertains to a case filed by the previous AAP-led government, in which the Supreme Court had, in July 2023, stayed an order of the National Green Tribunal (NGT) directing the L-G to head a high-level committee tasked with addressing the pollution and rejuvenation of the Yamuna river.
The court had agreed to examine the Delhi government’s challenge to the NGT’s January 19, 2023, order and had issued a notice to the petitioner on whose plea the tribunal had passed the directive.
In its order, the NGT had observed that nearly 75 per cent of Yamuna's pollution was concentrated in the Delhi region compared to other river basin states. It then formed a high-level committee comprising officials from concerned authorities in Delhi and requested the Lieutenant Governor, who also serves as the Chairman of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and as the Administrator of Delhi under Article 239 of the Constitution, to head the panel.
With PTI inputs