Separate Delhi Assembly secretariat a financial burden
In the past 100-odd days, what could not be missed was the functioning of the Delhi Assembly secretariat running in the top gear. The new speaker of Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta is a veteran of Delhi politics. A product of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, he had lost the Delhi University Students Union presidency in 1985 to no less a person than Ajay Maken, part of Congress top brass today.
However, a decade later he steadily climbed the ladders playing a long innings in MCD both in the opposition and on the treasury. He is credited with the commissioning of the mammoth Civic Centre, the headquarters of the Municipal Corporation. He was elevated a the President of Delhi BJP and later debuted in assembly electoral politics taking on the titans Sheila Dikshit and Arvind Kejriwal from New Delhi seat in 2013. He however lost in the polls,
He finally entered Delhi assembly when he was given ticket from his home seat of Rohini in 2015 and since then has won in 2020 and 2025. He was the dominant flag bearer for his party inside the House between 2015 and 2025, when AAP held sway over the national Capital. He must be holding the record for the number of times he was marshalled out of the house.
In 2025, when BJP won the polls with a clear majority, he was a front runner for the Chief Ministerial chair given his innings both in the corporation and in the assembly. However, he lost out to almost a decade junior in electoral politics, Rekha Gupta, as the party leadership backed a woman-led government. He was nevertheless respectfully accommodated as the Speaker of the house.
Given his campaign style politics and people connect, Gupta, unlike his predecessor Ram Niwas Goel, is not the one to live in hibernation. He has given clear indications of his ‘activism’ both inside the house and outside it, including in the meetings of the assembly committees. In fact, in his coverage by the media, he is running neck and neck with CM Rekha Gupta.
Now he has mooted the idea of freeing Delhi Assembly from the apron strings of Delhi government. According to newspaper reports, in a move that can give more powers to the Speaker, the Delhi Legislative Assembly’s Rules Committee has moved a proposal to establish an independent Secretariat and grant financial autonomy to the House.
The committee, under the chairmanship of Speaker Vijender Gupta himself, has given in-principle approval to the proposal, and a resolution in this regard is likely to be moved in the upcoming Monsoon Session.
Now what would the passage of this resolution by the Delhi assembly and its approval by the Centre, if given, amount to? In legalese the proposal would mark a major step forward in ensuring institutional independence and effective functioning of the Delhi Assembly as a constitutional legislative body. However, in spirit it would give powers to the Speaker to appoint staff of the Delhi Assembly secretariat.
No such provision for a separate Secretariat was made for the Delhi Assembly either in the Constitution or in the Government of NCT of Delhi Act, 1991. Thought behind it was possibly the truncated state list of law making applicable to National Capital Territory of Delhi. Will Delhi have sufficient legislative business to justify a separate assembly secretariat?
According to data available in public domain, in the past five years just 74 sitting of Delhi assembly took place. In these sitting deliberations were made for just 215 hours which is just above 11 minutes per day in the past five years. More interestingly just 180 questions were allowed during these five years, and which only 55 were answered on the floor of the house.
While this may be an extreme case as AAP was known to be non-serious towards governance and misuse the floor of the house for berating Centre as it gave it immunity from the application of defamation law.In the past 100-odd days, two sessions of the House have been held. Both were mandatory, first to swear in the new House members and debate Lieutenant Governor’s address and second the Budget session.
Other than the passage of the Budget, not much legislative business was transacted in the House excepting the presentation of the long pending report on the functioning of the Delhi Government by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India. It would be worth watching what legislative agenda does Rekha Gupta bring in the Monsoon session.
Given the procedure to whet legislative moves of Delhi government by the Centre, even on the subjects from the truncated state list, limits Delhi government’s law making abilities. If the scope for law making is limited, where is the need to have a separate Assembly secretariat? One is sure the Centre and the Lt Governor would weigh in detail the practicability of having a separate cadre to run Delhi assembly.
Sidharth Mishra
Author and president, Centre for Reforms, Development & Justice