Delhi High Court vacates stay on termination of Delhi Legislative Assembly Fellows

The Delhi High Court on Tuesday lifted the stay it had earlier imposed on the order of the Delhi Legislative Assembly Secretariat to disengage services of Fellows under the Delhi Assembly Research Centre Fellowship Programme [Subhashini Ratan & Ors v. Legislative Assembly Secretariat Nct Of Delhi & Ors]..Justice Subramonium Prasad observed that the Supreme Court had earlier chosen not to stay the letter terminating the services of the Fellows.Therefore, the High Court should not have passed any interim order which effectively stayed the order of the Delhi Legislative Assembly Secretariat, Justice Prasad said..“The Apex Court has declined to stay the Order dated 05.07.2023 by dismissing I.A. No.13505/2023. Propriety demands that this Court ought not have passed any interim order which had the effect of staying the Order dated 05.07.2023 and other consequential orders. In view of the above, this Court is inclined to vacate the stay granted by it in its Order dated 21.09.2023. However, it is always open for the Petitioner to approach the Apex Court to get appropriate clarifications,” the High Court said in its order. .In an interim order passed on September 21, Justice Prasad had stayed the order of the Delhi Legislative Assembly Secretariat and asked it to explain why it had agreed to the termination of the Fellows when the Speaker himself had objected to the decision.The Fellows had approached the High Court arguing that they had been appointed in 2019 following an advertisement and a proper selection process. The services of Fellows were regularly extended after every two years and barring a few, their tenure would have ended in December 2024, the Court was told.The services of the petitioners were terminated as the reservation policy had not been followed and the approval of the Lieutenant Governor had not been taken, it was further submitted.However, the counsel representing the petitioners added that the cited reasons were untenable in law. Referring to a letter written by the Speaker on July 7, the counsel also pointed out that the Speaker had opined that the cited reasons were not applicable in this case..After the Court stayed the termination order, the services department filed an application seeking the vacation of this stay.The Court was told that the Delhi government has approached the Supreme Court challenging the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi (Amendment) Ordinance, 2023 and that in the same petition, an application was moved challenging the letter as well.Notably, the department informed that the apex court chose not to stay the said letter. In view of this submission, the High Court vacated its earlier stay order. .Advocates Gautam Narayan, Asmita Singh, Harshit Goel and Siddhant Singh represented the petitioners.Advocates Santosh Kumar Tripathi, Pradymn Rao, Arun Panwar, Utkarsh Singh, Prashansa Sharma, Kartik Sharma, Avnish Ahlawat, Laavanya Kaushik, Taniya Ahlawat, Aliza Alam, Mohnish Sehrawat, Nitesh Kumar Singh, Anupam Srivastava and Vasuh Misra appeared for the Delhi Legislative Assembly Secretariat and other respondents..[Read Judgment]