Delhi Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal, has submitted his resignation to President Ram Nath Kovind citing “personal reasons”, according to sources, on Wednesday.
Baijal, a retired civil servant, had taken over as Lieutenant Governor in December 2016 following the abrupt resignation of his predecessor Najeeb Jung. He has completed his five-year tenure and an appointment of his successor has been due.
The role of Lieutenant Governor had been at the heart of an all-out power tussle between Delhi’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government and the BJP at the centre. A landmark Supreme Court judgement in 2018 however spelled out their powers more clearly.
In a big win for Arvind Kejriwal in the years-long fight for control of Delhi, the Supreme Court has ruled that the Lieutenant Governor does not have independent decision-making powers and the real power must lie with the elected government.
The top court emphasized that except for anything related to land, police and public order, the Lt Governor has no independent decision-making powers under the constitution.
A 1969 batch IAS officer, Baijal had served as Union Home Secretary under former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and held key positions in other ministries. Under the Congress-led UPA government, he oversaw the ₹ 60,000 crore Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission.
As Lieutenant Governor, Baijal was chief of the Delhi Disaster Management Authority that spearheaded the capital’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
