High Court stops Assembly panels from acting on drain de-silting
5 Aug 2017 5:49 PM GMT
The AAP government and the two panels of the Legislative Assembly were on Saturday restrained by the Delhi High Court from taking any coercive or penal steps in connection with the issue of de-silting of the city drains.
The direction by a bench of Acting Chief Justice Gita Mittal and Justice C Hari Shankar came on the plea of Delhi Chief Secretary M M Kutty, claiming he was being threatened with contempt of the House for not giving a report on de- silting that "suited the requirements" of the Delhi government.
The court stayed a June 29 report of the Assembly's Committee on Petitions which said there was misrepresentation of facts before it by Public Work Department (PWD) officials in connection with de-silting of drains.
The bench also put on hold a July 3 resolution of the Assembly accepting the panel's report and referring it to the Committee on Privileges for initiating privilege proceedings.
The court also stayed a August 3 note sent by the PWD minister to the Chief Secretary in which it was allegedly observed that the report submitted by him with regard to work done by PWD officials for de-silting the drains was "evasive and unsatisfactory".
The Assembly while accepting the Committee on Petitions report had asked the Chief Secretary to file a report fixing responsibility on those responsible for not de-silting the drains.
The matter was mentioned on Saturday before the
court by senior advocate Siddharth Luthra, appearing for Kutty and was heard in-chamber by the bench.
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