"Maturity Needed": Supreme Court's Reproof For Centre, Delhi Over Tussle

Supreme Court said no governance model requiring such collaboration can work if either of the two sides take a "My way or the highway approach which both seem to have adopted"

The Supreme Court today criticised the longstanding tussle between the Centre and the Arvind Kejriwal government in Delhi, remarking that the two governments need to get along to provide proper governance and failure to do so is "a breach of their respective electoral mandate". Pointing out that it has become an "endeavour" for the Centre and the Delhi government to "score points off the other", the court said "maturity is needed from both sides" to rectify the situation. "No governance model requiring such collaboration can work if either of the two sides take a 'My way or the highway approach' which both seem to have adopted," said a bench of Justices Sanjay Kishan Kaul, Dinesh Maheshwari and Hrishikesh Roy. While courts have been asked to define the contours of powers of the Delhi government and the Centre, advice to act in concert "appears to have fallen on deaf ears", the judges said. The court, which was hearing the case involving Facebook's appearance before the Delhi assembly, was speaking of the social media site's role and responsibility in instances where its platforms was used to spread fake news and inflammatory messages.