Delhi High Court seeks Centre, Delhi reply on CS plea

New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Monday sought response of the Centre, AAP government, lieutenant-governor (L-G) and others on a plea filed by chief secretary Anshu Prakash challenging the notice by the Assembly’s Privilege Committee directing him to appear before it for skipping a meeting called by the panel.

The committee, meanwhile, assured the Delhi high court that it would not take any coercive action against chief secretary Anshu Prakash for skipping meetings called by the panel.

Justice Rajiv Shakdher issued notices to the ministry of home affairs, the Privilege Committee, the Question and Reference Committee, apart from the city government and the L-G, while seeking their reply in two weeks. The judge posted the matter to April 11 after the Delhi Assembly’s Privilege Com-mittee agreed to defer the meeting till further orders.

The matter came up before Justice Shakdher after a division bench comprising justices G.S. Sistani and Sangita Dhingra Sehgal, which heard the matter briefly, said that the plea should be dealt by a single judge bench. At the outset, the high court expressed reservation on hearing the plea saying it will have to see whether it has the jurisdiction to deal with the matter or not.

The bench observed: “We need to address the issue of jurisdiction. We have to be very cautious while dealing with the issue. Today, it is the case of Delhi Assembly. Tomorr-ow it could be Lok Sabha or Rajya Sabha. We need to hear this matter in detail.”

During the proceedings, senior advocate Sanjay Hegde, appearing for the Privilege Committee, assured the bench that he has sought instructions, and he was ready to undertake that there would be no coercive action against the chief secretary if he attends the meeting.

Senior advocate Sidharth Luthra, appearing for the CS, however, said that the notice which was issued to him was a “clear case of malice” and this action has been taken in pursuance to the lodging of FIR against AAP MLAs — Amanatullah Khan and Prakash Jarwal.

Earlier in the day, the division bench of the high court had said that efforts should have been made by both the “sides”, the

AAP government and chief secretary Anshu Prakash, to “assuage tempers”.