The Delhi High Court on Friday refused to entertain a petition seeking a special sitting of the Delhi Legislative Assembly for the tabling of 14 reports by the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG).
Rejecting the petition filed by seven Bharatiya Janata Party MLAs, the single-judge Bench of Justice Sachin Datta noted that courts could not issue directions for summoning of a special session to lay reports.
Referring to a Supreme Court decision on the matter, the High Court observed that the power to reconvene sitting/s of the Legislative Assembly, after it had been adjourned sine die without prorogation, was the sole prerogative of the Speaker of the Assembly.
The single-judge Bench, however, took note of the allegations made in the petition that the Delhi government had delayed forwarding the CAG reports to the Speaker by around 490 days.
Noting that the laying of CAG reports was a mandatory constitutional imperative, the High Court directed that once the Legislative Assembly was constituted and summoned, pursuant to the upcoming elections, requisite steps shall be taken by the Delhi government to place the CAG Reports before the Assembly as expeditiously as possible.
Seven BJP MLAs, including Vijender Gupta, Mohan Singh Bisht, Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Abhay Verma, Anil Bajpai and Jitender Mahajan, had moved the High Court seeking directions for the CAG reports to be forwarded to the Assembly Speaker and praying for a special assembly sitting for discussion and deliberation on these reports.
Filed through Advocates Neeraj and Satya Ranjan Swain, the petition made the Chief Minister of Delhi, the Lieutenant General of Delhi, the Speaker of the Legislative Assembly and the CAG as parties to the case.
Appearing for the BJP MLAs, Senior Advocate Mahesh Jethmalani argued that the petitioners were seeking the fulfilment of a constitutional mandate. Noting that the CAG’s duties were given under Articles 149 and Article 151 of the Constitution, he submitted that this was the basic feature of parliamentary democracy.
An affidavit submitted in the Court by the LG office on January 3 said that the AAP government was not ceasing in their delay tactics.
The Secretary of the Legislative Assembly also filed a short reply, stating that the tabling of CAG reports was meant for detailed scrutiny and examination by the Assembly on such reports, and not to make the same publicly available.