LG VS AAP: Victorious Kejriwal meets P Chidambaram and other lawyers, thanks them after SC verdict

Following his victory in the Supreme Court, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today met former Union minister P Chidambaram and other senior lawyers, including Gopal Subramanium, for representing the city government in the apex court.     

 The court today handed a major victory to Delhi's AAP government in its bitter power tussle with the Centre by ruling that the lieutenant governor (LG) has no independent power to take decisions and is bound by the elected government's advice.

"The chief minister today met Delhi government's lawyers P Chidambaram, Subramanium, Indira Jaising, Rajeev Dhavan and others at their residences in the evening to thank them," a government spokesperson said.

Chidambaram was one of the lawyers who represented the Delhi government in the apex court.

The five-judge bench of the Supreme Court today said in a unanimous ruling pronounced by Chief Justice Dipak Misra that "there is no room for absolutism and there is no room for anarchism also." The ruling also held that the LG, who is appointed by the Centre, cannot act as an "obstructionist."

The ruling vindicates Kejriwal, who has long accused Baijal of preventing him from functioning properly at the behest of the Centre.

It also lays down for the first time clear guidelines for the LG's conduct, and delineates the powers of the two branches of the executive in Delhi, which does not have the status of a full state yet and elects its own MLAs and government.