In a letter to Lieutenant-Governor V K Saxena, Delhi Assembly Speaker Ram Niwas Goel warns that any action taken against fellows of the Delhi Assembly Research Centre (DARC) may be considered a breach of privilege and an act of contempt of the House.
Among other things, the services department of the Delhi government was instructed by LG Saxena to terminate the employment of advisers, fellows, associate fellows, and specialists in a correspondence dated July 5. No consent from the LG was sought for this decision.
Following this, the Delhi government’s finance department intervened and gave all the ministries and agencies the order not to release the salary of such employed people.
Mr. Goel stated that the messages were released in a “hurried manner” and that it was unnecessary to remove the fellows and advisors.
“These communications issued by the services department and finance department appear to have been issued hurriedly without examining the matter in detail or seeking legal opinion or the views of the affected stakeholders,” Mr. Goel wrote in the letter.
According to Mr. Goel, the fellows and associate fellows were hired after obeying the law.
“The fellows and associate fellows of DARC were engaged after observing the legal requirements for the engagement process. These communications are suitable to be deemed void ab initio (having no legal effect from the outset), the Speaker said, because their justification is faulty.
Goel added that the scheme is not included by the definition of services. “The programme is not an appointment or employment per se and does not fall under the purview of services,” he declared.
