Delhi assembly chronicles: A tale of law and politics

The yearning for good governance has undeniably contributed to the clamour for effecting change in the Indian political setup. However, what if there is no government to deliver the remedy for all that plagues the governance setup? This peculiar, but not unheard of, situation has most recently arisen in Delhi, wherein the National Capital of India has been deprived of a functional legislative assembly and a local government for the past four months. The special constitutional status accorded to Delhi has resulted in not-so-special treatment being meted out to two pillars of its governance structure. Even as the nation gears up for an overhaul in governance under the new central government, the Delhi Assembly lies in limbo. This paper endeavours to scrutinise the constitutional framework which could have contributed to the extant situation in Delhi, as also to traverse the political contours of this conundrum. Further, the paper assesses the choice of keeping the Assembly in suspended animation rather than dissolving it. The paper concludes with the authors’ brief opinion on whether the absence of a local Government and a functional Assembly has affected governance in our national capital.