NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday sought Lieutenant Governor (L-G) VK Saxena’s response in Delhi government’s plea seeking to set aside his March 4, 2023 order wherein he approved a proposal by the State Council of Educational Research and Training (SCERT) to send primary teachers of state-run schools to Finland for training, with certain conditions.
The L-G, while granting the approval had stated that teachers trained in the program shall only become trainers in India. He had also said that there was no need for conducting such programmes abroad in future and should be confined to India.
The notice was issued by a bench of CJI DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala. The petition alleged ‘unwarranted and deliberate delay’ caused by the Lieutenant Governor in approving the proposal sent by the State Council of Educational Research and Training to send primary in-charge teachers of government schools in Delhi for training to Finland in the months of December 2022 and March 2023.
Urging the bench to list the plea, the govt also sought an order declaring that the L-G is bound to act on the aid and advice of the Council of Ministers. Senior advocate AM Singhvi submitted before the court that the L-G was deciding which teachers to send, how to send and when to send them.
It was argued in the plea that the L-G, by imposing these conditions, had illegally and unconstitutionally assumed the role of an appellate authority. “However, by not processing the files with reasonable expedition, the Lieutenant Governor is effectively exercising pocket veto power in areas over which the elected government has exclusive executive power in terms of the Constitution Bench judgment i.e. all subjects in the State and Concurrent List, apart from the three excepted subjects of public order, police and land,” the plea stated.
Delhi government in the plea had also said that the L-G, instead of considering the proposal in a time bound manner & through dialogue and discussion, kept the matter pending for a long time, thereby interfering with the Delhi Govt’s ‘progress in the realm of education’.
‘Unwarranted and deliberate delay by L-G’
The petition alleged ‘unwarranted and deliberate delay’ caused by the Lieutenant Governor in approving the proposal sent by the State Council of Educational Research and Training to send primary in-charge teachers of government schools in Delhi for training to Finland in the months of December 2022 and March 2023