LG VK Saxena dissolves AAP’s Standing Committee on criminal cases

Delhi Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena dissolved the existing Standing Committee constituted by the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) Government on Monday to ensure the quality of investigation in criminal cases and their prosecution. Saxena noted that this move was in gross violation of the 2014 Supreme Court directions and subsequent guidelines of the Centre.
While scrapping the existing Standing Committee, which was headed by the Standing Counsel (Criminal) of the Delhi High Court, with the Additional Standing Counsel as a Member, Saxena approved the proposal for its reconstitution. The reconstituted committee will have the Additional Chief Secretary/Principal Secretary (Home) as Chairman and the Principal Secretary (Law), Director (Prosecution), and Special Commissioner of Police as members, according to a press note from the Delhi Lieutenant Governor’s office.
The LG emphasized that there was no reason or justification for the continuation of the existing Standing Committee.
Even his predecessor had repeatedly objected to it, as indicated in his note dated May 11, 2017. The LG had directed a review of the committee’s constitution to bring it into conformity with the order of the Apex Court. Reminders were issued by the LG Secretariat on February 19, 2018, June 22, 2018, October 18, 2018, and May 31, 2019, but no proposal for the reconstitution of the committee was submitted.
Saxena observed that the lackadaisical approach of the ruling dispensation in this case seems to be an attempt to control the service matters of police and prosecution officers, which is not in their executive domain. It is a settled principle of law that things that cannot be done directly shall not be done indirectly in a clandestine manner, as per the note.