On June 22, New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC) member and Bharatiya Janata Party leader Kuljeet Singh Chahal moved a resolution to remove Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal from the council and declare his seat vacant as per regulations. Chahal cited his absence from council meetings for four months as the reason for the resolution. On the other hand, Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena ordered the removal of three Delhi Government officials who were appointed to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s office over corruption charges.
Resolution in NDMC against CM Kejriwal
Reports have quoted unnamed officials present at the meeting saying the chairman has decided to table Chahal’s resolution for the next meeting for discussion and voting. During the Wednesday meeting, CM Arvind Kejriwal was also present. Chahal had submitted a copy of the resolution on Monday, and the proposal was signed by four other NDMC members as well.
Chahal cited Section 8(2) of the NDMC Act, 1994, which suggests, “if during three successive months, a member is without permission of the council, absent from all meetings thereof, the council may recommend the central government that seat of such member may be declared vacant”. CM Kejriwal is the ex-officio member of the NDMC and MLA of the New Delhi constituency. For any council member, it is compulsory to seek permission from the board if he or she cannot attend the meeting. However, Kejriwal allegedly did not take permission and skipped meetings for straight four months from December 2021 to March 2022.
Chahal said in the resolutions, “Therefore as per the provisions of section 8 of the NDMC Act, the council may recommend to the central government that the seat… may be declared vacant with the recommendation to initiate further necessary action accordingly.”
In a statement, Chahal said, “I have also sought a recommendation from the law department, and they have also sent a report saying it is legally possible to declare a seat vacant… So, in the next meeting, the voting will take place and then it will be recommended to the central government for a final decision on the matter.” He added, “No one is above the law.”
In a report by the law department, it was stated that as per the NDMC Act, the council has the power to send recommendations to the Central Government to declare a seat vacant if the member fails to attend meetings for the prescribed time without taking permission from the council.
Notably, a similar matter had come up earlier in front of the council. CM had attended two meetings after the issue was raised by an NDMC member.
LG ordered the removal of three Delhi Government officials
On June 22, Lieutenant Governor Vinai Kumar Saxena ordered the suspension of three Delhi Government officials who were deployed in CM Kejriwal’s office over corruption charges. Three officers that have been suspended are CMO Deputy Secretary Prakash Chandra Thakur, SDM Vasant Vihar Harshit Jain and SDM Vivek Vihar Devendra Sharma.
As per reports, these officers were removed based on the corruption charges for allegedly selling government land to private entities. Just two days before the suspension of these three officials, two assistant engineers of the Delhi Development Authority (DDA) were also suspended. It was found that there were lapses in the construction of flats built for Economical Weaker Sections (EWS) in Kalkaji Extension, after which the action against the engineers was taken.
