Delhi government, AAP slam HC, will move SC

New Delhi, Aug 4 (IANS) The Delhi government and the AAP on Thursday slammed the Delhi High Court for giving primacy to the Lt. Governor in the administration and vowed to challenge the ruling in the Supreme Court.

"Delhi government disagrees with the decision of the High Court on power distribution and will challenge the verdict in Supreme Court," official spokesman Nagendar Sharma said.

He said initial assessment of the verdict showed that the High Court had "undermined the powers of the council of ministers mentioned in the constitution".

Alleging that the High Court had erroneously given primacy to Article 239 over Article 239AA, he said that Centre-state constitutional disagreement can only be settled by the Supreme Court.

The Aam Aadmi Party was harsher in its criticism of the High Court. It called the ruling "anti-people".

"The High Court verdict has made a mockery of Indian democracy," AAP leader Ashish Khetan tweeted. "It is an anti-people judgement.

"Would Narendra Modi have agreed to (President) Pranab Mukherjee running the central government after winning 282 seats in the Lok Sabha?" he asked in reference to the AAP's equally sweeping win in Delhi in February 2015.

Another party leader, Raghav Chadha, said: "A democratically elected government cannot be undermined. This isn't a fight for supremacy but for democracy."