No relief for ex-civic chief of Amravati

Mumbai: Former Indian Admin-istrative Services (IAS) officer Chandrakant Gudewar, who was found guilty of breach of privilege against BJP MLA Sunil Deshmukh from Amravati, has appro-ached the Bombay high court seeking relief against a summons issued by the Legislative Assembly with regard to the contempt proceedings initiated against him.

The court while refusing to grant him relief from appearing for the hearing has said that the recommendations of the Legislative Assembly would be subject to the outcome of the petition.

A division bench of Justice Naresh Patil and Justice G.S. Kulkani was hearing a writ petition filed by Mr Gudewar who has been issued summons by the Secretariat of the Legislative Assembly to appear before the Assembly on March 27 with regards to the breach of privilege filed against him by Mr Deshmukh in 2016. Mr Deshmukh had alleged that Mr Gudewar who was the then-municipal commissioner of Amrav-ati had completely ignored his recommendations while finalising the list of beneficiaries of the Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY) and hence was guilty of breach of privilege. The Assembly had passed a resolution in 2017 confirming the crime of Mr Gudewar and had issued the summons in this regard. In the petition, Mr Gudewar sought relief in the form of the summons being suspended or postponing the date for his appearance.

Senior counsel M.P. Rao appearing for Mr Gudewar told the court that in light of the issuance of the summons, his client feared the worst and his entire career was at stake hence sought the relief till the petition was decided by the high court.  

Advocate general Ashustosh Kumbhakoni, while appearing for the state, said that the resolution of the Assembly clearly stated the reasons for the appearance and Mr Gudewar should respond to the summons.