New Delhi: A week after the Narendra Modi government decided to promulgate an ordinance to take over the International Centre for Alternative Dispute Resolution (ICADR), the Delhi High Court Thursday orally allowed it to continue functioning as per the existing system.
After a lengthy hearing, the bench, headed by the Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajendra Menon, also directed the Modi government to respond to the contentions of the petitioner within two weeks.
The decision to promulgate the ordinance — even after the bill that the government had introduced in Parliament for the purpose had lapsed — was seen by many as yet another step by the Modi government to take on the higher judiciary. The Chief Justice of India is the ex-officio chairman of the governing council of the ICADR, which is registered under the Societies Act.
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‘Govt didn’t pay compensation, didn’t follow due procedure’
In its petition, filed through secretary general P.K. Malhotra, a former union law secretary, the ICADR stated that while the estimated worth of ICADR’s assets was around Rs 500 crore, the government had decided to take over them without paying any compensation to the petitioner society.
“It is settled law that an institution can be taken over only if there are allegations of financial irregularities or mismanagement. There is no such case in the case of the petitioner’s society,” the petition said. It also pointed to the fact that the government had not paid a “single penny” to the ICADR in the last five years.
It was also contended that the government had not followed the due principle established by law before deciding to take the society’s assets.
“The New Delhi International Arbitration Centre Ordinance, 2019, has sought to eliminate the very existence of the petitioner society by providing for vesting of the entire assets and properties of the petitioner society to the central government which the central government will subsequently vest in New Delhi International Arbitration,” the petition reads.
Ordinance promulgated last month
On 28 February, the union cabinet, at a meeting chaired by PM Modi, had cleared the proposal for the issuance of an ordinance to set up the New Delhi International Arbitration Centre (NDIAC) for “institutionalised arbitration”.
The cabinet had also decided that in order to facilitate the setting up of NDIAC, the control of all assets of the ICADR would vest in the central government.
However, the last-minute ordinance, the petition said, didn’t show the urgency why the government couldn’t wait any longer.