High Court Says Delhi Govt Dragged Its Feet On Placing CAG Reports Before Legislative Assembly, Calls It 'Unfortunate'

The Delhi High Court on Monday orally remarked that the Delhi Government dragged its feet on placing various reports of the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) before the Legislative Assembly, calling the situation unfortunate. Justice Sachin Datta was hearing a plea seeking direction to the Delhi Government and Chief Minister to forward the 14 CAG reports to the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and a further direction to the Speaker to summoning a special sitting and to table the reports before the Assembly in a time bound manner.“The way you dragged your feet raises doubts about your bonafides. You should have promptly forwarded the reports to the Speaker and had a discussion in the House. The timeline is stark. See the way you have been dragging your feet is something that is unfortunate,” the Court told the Delhi Government's counsel. The plea has been moved by Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Legislative Assembly Vijender Gupta and six BJP MLAs Mohan Singh Bisht, Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Abhay Verma, Anil Kumar Bajpai and Jitendra Mahajan. In the pre-lunch session, Justice Datta also remarked that the Delhi Government should have promptly placed the reports before the Assembly for discussion.The Court also said that calling for a session was the authority of the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and questioned if a mandamus could be issued to the Speaker to do the same especially when the elections were around the corner. In the post-lunch session, Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani appeared for the petitioners and took the Court through important dates as well as relevant Rules governing the issue. “We ask for the Delhi Government to comply with its statutory obligations with respect to two issues. CAG reports be forwarded to the LG and to convene a session of the House…,” he said. As Jethmalani concluded his submissions, Senior Advocate Rahul Mehra appearing for the other side said that while the matter was sub judice, BJP referred to Court's “dragged its feet” remark in a press conference against the Delhi Government. “They are using court as an instrument to play political games. Are we going to have a level playing field or is it the way we are going to have elections?” Mehra said. “They are holding a press conference when the matter is sub judice. Please ask them to have some restraint… have some respect for court atleast,” he said. However, the Court remarked that it cannot go into politics and listed the matter for hearing next on January 16. The petitioners had last year moved a plea seeking a direction to the Delhi government to send the CAG reports pertaining to "Finance, pollution, administration and liquor" to Lieutenant Governor VK Saxena for presenting the same before the Legislative Assembly.In the fresh petition, the petitioners refer to a statement made by the Delhi Government on December 16, 2024, that the reports shall be forwarded to the Speaker within two to three days.The plea claims that as on December 12, 2024, the CAG reports were not received by the Speaker which is a clear violation of the statement given before Court.Title: VIJENDER GUPTA & ORS v. GOVERNMENT OF NATIONAL CAPITAL TERRITORY OF DELHI & ORS

High Court Says Delhi Govt Dragged Its Feet On Placing CAG Reports Before Legislative Assembly, Calls It 'Unfortunate'

Nupur Thapliyal

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