City Briefs

‘Phansi ghar’: ‘Kejriwal, Sisodia’s plea against notice pre-mature’

New Delhi: The Assembly secretariat on Friday contended before the Delhi High Court that the petition by AAP leaders Arvind Kejriwal and Manish Sisodia challenging summons issued to them by the Delhi Assembly’s privileges committee over the ‘phansi ghar’ issue was “pre-mature”. Opposing the petition, the counsel for the secretariat submitted that the privileges committee was only examining the facts regarding the existence of a ‘phansi ghar’ and no allegations of breach of privilege or contempt of the House had been levelled against the AAP leaders. The counsel contended before Justice Sachin Datta that the non-appearance of the AAP leaders before the committee was barring it from proceeding ahead which amounts to contempt of the House. “The writ petition is completely pre-mature. The committee is yet to come to a conclusion. “There have been no allegations of breach of privilege and contempt of house against the petitioners (Kejriwal and Sisodia). Their non-appearance before the committee amounts to contempt of the house, thus it is a very serious matter… No one’s life or liberty is being threatened in any manner,” senior advocate Jayant Mehta, representing the Assembly, contended.

Sikh man injured during scuffle over hookah, parking space in west Delhi

New Delhi: A Sikh man has been injured when a scuffle broke out between two neighbours in west Delhi over smoking of hookah, police said on Friday. The incident took place in Kirti Nagar on Thursday evening, they said. According to police, the two families had already been engaged in a parking-related dispute. The hostility escalated when the Sikh family objected to their neighbour smoking hookah, leading to a physical fight in which a family member was assaulted. No complaint has been received from either side and hence, no FIR has been registered, a senior police officer said. “A PCR call was received at Kirti Nagar police station regarding a quarrel between two neighbours in the area. Accordingly, local police reached the spot,” said Deputy Commissioner of Police (West) Darade Sharad Bhaskar. He said one family was found living on the ground floor and the other on the floor above. “They admitted that they had a quarrel over some minor issue and therefore made the call. They settled the matter amicably between themselves and no further police action is warranted in this matter,” the DCP said.