No urgency in petitions as deadlock' broken, says Delhi HC
BJP leaders not to withdraw pleas; hearing on August 3.
New Delhi: The Delhi high court on Friday said that there is no urgency in the pleas against the recent sit-in dharna by chief minister Arvind Kejriwal and the alleged strike by the IAS officers as the “deadlock” between them has been broken.
“Deadlock is broken. There is no urgency,” a bench of justices A.K. Chawla and Navin Chawla said and asked the petitioners whether they wanted to withdraw their respective petitions.
The petitioners, including Leader of Opposition in the Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta, said they wanted to pursue the respective issues raised by them and the court, thereafter, listed all the matters for hearing on August 3.
There are two petitions, one of them by the BJP leader, against the recent sit-in hunger strike by Mr Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues — deputy CM Manish Sisodia and health minister Satyender Jain — at the office of lieutenant-governor (L-G) Anil Baijal.
The other plea against Mr Kejriwal's strike was moved by a lawyer, Hari Nath Ram, who also moved the Supreme Court after the high court declined to pass an interim order on June 18.
The apex court is likely to hear the matter in July.The chief minister and his Cabinet ministers had been on a sit-in since June 11 evening in order to press for their demands, including a direction to the IAS officers to end their “strike” and take action against those who have struck work.
Mr Kejriwal called off the strike was called off a day after the high court on June 18 had virtually disapproved of the protest by questioning who had authorised it.
The court had also observed that strikes or sit-ins are held outside and not inside someone's workplace or residence.
Apart from the petitions against Mr Kejriwal's protest, two separate petitions were also moved by lawyers Umesh Gupta and Prashant Manchanda against the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) officers of the Delhi government for not participating in meetings.
Mr Manchanda, whose petition was filed two days ago, has alleged that “breakdown of the administrative machinery” due to non-attending of meetings by bureaucrats.