1. Services Dept. makes L-G’s call official: 437 appointments by AAP govt. declared ‘void’

L-G V.K. Saxena had ordered terminating services of the consultants, Raj Niwas officials said on Monday. FILE PHOTO

The Services Department on Wednesday issued an order that 437 private persons appointed as advisers, fellows and consultants by the AAP government are “void ab initio” (void from the beginning) and asked the departments concerned to stop their services.

While there was no official response, sources in the government said a majority of these employees had worked closely with AAP leaders.

The development comes after Raj Niwas officials on Monday said Lieutenant-Governor V.K. Saxena terminated nearly 400 private persons from service whom the Delhi government hired via “back door entry”. The government had said it would challenge the decision in court, while accusing the L-G of “acting against the Constitution”.

Wednesday’s order, which did not mention any names, stated, “It is observed that the extant provisions of reservations for SC/ST/OBC… prescribed by the DoPT [Department of Personnel and Training, Ministry of Personnel Public Grievances and Pensions]… for reservation in temporary appointments lasting for 45 days or more have also not been followed in these engagements.”

Reservation provisions

“It is also observed that the above-mentioned engagements have been made in gross violations of the constitutional provisions on reservation, thus, void ab initio,” it added, while directing the Finance Department not to pay them salaries.

The order directed all departments to stop engagements of all the fellows, associate fellows, advisers, deputy advisers, specialists, senior research officers and consultants, whose appointment was done without the L-G’s approval.

Agencies impacted

According to the order accessed by The Hindu, the Delhi Transport Corporation had engaged as many as 49 such persons in various designations. The Delhi Jal Board had employed a chief media adviser at a monthly remuneration of ₹1.5 lakh and a consultant (water bodies) at ₹2 lakh. The Legislative Assembly had 50 fellows, who received ₹1 lakh a month. The Dialogue and Development Commission of Delhi had positions of six advisers who were paid ₹2.65 lakh a month and 21 consultants who received ₹1.25 lakh.

2. Bombay HC notice to State govt. on panel on interfaith marriage

Government resolution is unconstitutional, against the rights of women, an attack on the freedom to practise one’s faith, says plea filed by NGOs

The Bombay High Court on Wednesday directed the Maharashtra government to reply to a petition seeking to quash an order setting up a panel to track interfaith marriages.

The Public Interest Litigation (PIL) plea was filed by four non-governmental organisations — Citizens for Justice and Peace, People’s Union for Civil Liberties, Forum Against Oppression of Women, and Indian Muslims for Secular Democracy.

They are challenging a Government Resolution (GR) dated December 15, 2022, which set up an interfaith marriage family coordination committee, headed by the Maharashtra Women and Child Development Minister, seeking to track information about women in interreligious marriages.

The NGOs argued that the panel’s activities would deny women their own agency and choice.

Hearing the case, a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Nitin Jamdar and Justice Arif Doctor issued a notice to the State and directed it to file its reply within two weeks.

‘Contravenes Art. 14, 15’

The PIL plea states that the government resolution contravenes Articles 14 (equality before law), 15 (prohibition of discrimination on grounds of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth), 19 (freedom of speech and expression), 21 (right to life and personal liberty), and 25 (freedom of conscience and free profession, practice and propagation of religion) of the Constitution.

“The GR is against the rights of all women and a serious attack on the freedom to practise one’s faith and religion. The resolution encourages negative public perception against interreligious marriages and widens the divide amongst different religious communities and goes against the secular thread of Indian democracy,” the PIL petition said.

The court is also hearing a similar plea, filed by Samajwadi Party MLA Rais Shaikh, challenging the GR and seeking to quash it.

3. ‘A global rupee may raise volatility’

Rupee internationalisation could come in conflict with domestic monetary policy, caution officials of an Inter-Departmental Group of the RBI; however, the group asserts that the benefits of internationalisation far outweigh the various concerns

As the Government of India presses ahead with its plan to internationalise the Indian Rupee (INR), an Inter-Departmental Group (IDG) of officials of the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) have in a report cautioned that internationalisation may result in increased volatility in the rupee’s exchange rate in the initial stages.

“This would further have monetary implications as the obligation of a country to supply its currency to meet the global demand may come in conflict with its domestic monetary policies, popularly known as the Triffin dilemma,” the IDG wrote.

“Also, the internationalisation of a currency may accentuate an external shock, given the open channel of the flow of funds into and out of the country and from one currency to another,” the officials added.

However, the IDG held that the overall benefits of internationalisation in terms of limited exchange rate risk, lower cost of capital due to better access to international financial markets, high seigniorage benefits and reduced requirement of foreign exchange reserves far outweighed the concerns.

In accordance with the terms of reference, the IDG has recommended a roadmap to achieve rupee internationalisation.

The group has also recommended designing a template and adopting a standardised approach for examining the proposals on bilateral and multilateral trade arrangements for invoicing, settlement and payment in INR and local currencies.

It said efforts must be made to enable INR as an additional settlement currency in existing multilateral mechanisms such as the Asian Clearing Union.

“The report and its recommendations reflect the views of the IDG and do not in any way reflect the official position of the Reserve Bank of India,” the central bank observed.