CNG probe panel again requests case documents

Commission of Inquiry chairman Justice S.N. Aggarwal (Retd), appointed by the AAP government to probe the CNG fitness scam, has once again req-uested lieutenant-governor Najeeb Jung to direct Anti-Corruption Branch head Mukesh Kumar Meena to provide him all documents so that he could initiate proceedings in the matter.

Responding to the lieutenant governor’s reply to his earlier communication in which he had turned down his request to assist him in providing documents related to the fitness scam, Justice Aggarwal has reiterated that the issue of validity or invalidity of the Commission of Inquiry was pending before the Delhi high court where a prayer for staying the proceedings of the commission had been declined.

In his reply to the L-G, Justice Aggarwal said that the court did not restrain the commission from functioning, but merely directed it not to pass any coercive orders. He said: “In keeping with the orders of the high court, I had requested you through my communication dated December 30, 2015 to direct M.K. Meena, joint CP, ACB to produce the relevant record pertaining to the subject matter of the inquiry which unfortunately you have declined.”

Quoting the Union home ministry letter which had termed the Commission of Inquiry legally invalid and therefore, void ab initio, the L-G had written to Justice Aggarwal that he was constitutionally bound to follow instructions of the MHA and was therefore unable to assist him in the matter.

In his four-page reply to Raj Nivas based on two Supreme Court rulings, Justice Aggarwal said that the L-G was the Constitutional head of the state, bound by the advice of his council of ministers, and was not amenable to the directions of the Union government. In view of the legal position stated by him, he also requested the L-G to revisit his decision and pass appropriate orders as requested by him.

Justice Aggarwal told the L-G that he was labouring under a misconception that he was bound to follow the instructions of the MHA and by saying so he was, in fact, undermining his own position.