Updated 18:09 IST, January 24th 2025
Delhi HC Refuses To Direct Sitting Of Assembly For Tabling CAG Reports
Delhi High Court declined to order a special assembly session for tabling CAG reports, citing it as "impractical" with elections just days away.
New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to direct a sitting of the state assembly for tabling several CAG reports on governance, saying holding a special sitting barely a few days away from elections was "impractical".
Justice Sachin Datta however underlined that tabling of the audit reports was mandatory under the Constitution and directed the reports to be placed in the assembly by Delhi government after the elections as expeditiously as possible.
"In such a situation (when the current legislative assembly is about to expire), it would be impracticable to hold a special sitting of the assembly... Given that the legislative assembly is at the fag end of its current term, the examination and scrutiny by the PAC (public accounts committee) will now take place only after the newly-elected assembly is re-convened," the order said.
The court is not inclined to accept the prayers of the petitioners that a mandamus be issued to the speaker for summoning a special session of the legislative assembly at this stage, it added.
The court observed an "inordinate delay" by the AAP government in laying the CAG reports in the assembly and the timeline revealed a "disdainful disregard" of its constitutional obligations.
The court therefore directed once the legislative assembly was constituted and summoned pursuant to the elections, steps should be taken by Delhi government under the procedural rules for tabling the CAG reports as expeditiously as possible.
Opposition leader Vijender Gupta and BJP MLAs -- Mohan Singh Bisht, Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Abhay Verma, Anil Kumar Bajpai and Jitendra Mahajan -- filed the petition last year and sought a direction to the speaker to call a sitting of the assembly for tabling the CAG reports.
The petitioners filed the plea through advocates Neeraj and Satya Ranjan Swain.
The senior lawyers for the speaker and the government opposed the court passing such a direction and said there was no urgency to table the reports at a stage when the assembly elections were to be held soon.
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Published 18:09 IST, January 24th 2025