India´s top court slammed top officials Tuesday for dragging their feet in forming a new government in the national capital more than eight months after the last administration resigned in chaos.
New Delhi, a city of some 17 million people, has been without a proper government since February, when the capital´s firebrand chief minister Arvind Kejriwal quit to protest the blocking of an anti-corruption bill.
The Supreme Court urged authorities and political parties to resolve the impasse, saying Delhi residents deserved a democratically elected government.
“We gave you enough time but nothing has happened so far,” Chief Justice H.L. Dattu, who heads a five-judge bench, told the court.
“The people of Delhi have a right to have a democratically elected government and not be ruled by the president,” he said.
The court was directing its criticism at Lieutenant Governor Najeeb Jung and the national government which have been running the city-state since Kejriwal quit as head of a minority administration.
Kejriwal, an anti-corruption campaigner and a self-described “anarchist”, had only taken power 49 days before his shock resignation.
