IAS officer Ashish More, who was removed as the secretary of the Delhi government’s services department last week hours after the Supreme Court’s landmark verdict that ruled in favour of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government, has been issued a show cause notice by the AAP government for not complying with its direction to replace him with a new officer and has threatened disciplinary action against him.
According to sources, the Delhi government is planning to initiate disciplinary action against Ashish More for not “complying with the Supreme Court order.
A reply has been sought from Ashish More within 24 hours.
After being asked to make way for his replacement on Thursday, Services Minister Saurabh Bharadwaj had earlier said that Ashish More, “unexpectedly left the Secretariat” and switched off his phone.
“Services Minister Saurabh Bhardwaj, instructed Services Secretary, Ashish More, to present a file for the transfer of a new officer to the post of Secretary of Services Department. However, Ashish More unexpectedly left the Secretariat without notifying the minister’s office, rendering himself unreachable while his phone also remained switched off,” a statement said.
The Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that the AAP government has legislative and executive powers over administration of services and only “public order, police and land” are excluded from its jurisdiction.
In a democratic form of governance, the power of administration must rest on the elected arm and the Lieutenant Governor is bound by its decision, said the bench led by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud.
After the judgement, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal had declared that there would be transfers to remove corrupt officers and bring in honest, hard-working officers. “Our work will now be 10 times faster,” Kejriwal said, adding that a “lean, thin, responsive, passionate and accountable” government will be the norm.
