House resolves to get lawyers for court cases
NEWDELHI: The Delhi Assembly on Monday passed a resolution seeking financial powers for the speaker to depute lawyers to fight court cases.
The House, which got extended for another day, while resolving to empower speaker Ram Niwas Goel highlighted the “recent trend” of bureaucrats moving courts against various decisions given by the House committees.
The resolution, moved by Kasturba Nagar MLA Madan Lal, was described by AAP legislators as a step for “safeguarding independence of legislature”. The resolution stated that any violation of the House’s decision will be treated as “contempt of the House and breach of privilege”.
“Payments of advocates representing the assembly in courts have not been cleared by officers even after two years in several cases including those filed by officers against the House panel’s decisions,” speaker Goel said.
The move comes at a time when a number of officers including chief secretary Anshu Prakash have moved the court seeking relief from action to be taken by the House committees.
Supporting the resolution, deputy chief minister Manish Sisodia assured that the government would provide sufficient funds to the assembly, even as BJP MLA Manjinder Singh Sirsa opposed the move.
“There is no point of such resolution as there is no provision in the existing law which gives the legislature the power to appoint their lawyers and make their payments,” Sirsa said.
However, the speaker said that he has written to the law minister urging him to allow the assembly to hire lawyers to fight court cases.
“I had also sent the files to the chief secretary...but the executive has created hurdles,” he said.
During a discussion on resolution, AAP MLA Saurabh Bharadwaj said that the Delhi Assembly is above government and officers. “If assembly committees initiate action against corrupt officers, they move court and are also provided lawyers by the L-G. But when the Assembly hires lawyers to fight the court cases, their fees are not released by officers,” he said.
The assembly witnessed an uproar on the issue of dirty water allegedly being supplied in various parts of the city. The allegation was levelled by BJP legislators who entered the well of the House displaying bottles filled with filthy water.
As the House proceedings began, Gupta and OP Sharma went near the chair of Speaker Ram Niwas Goel, showing him bottles filled with contaminated water. Leader of Opposition Vijender Gupta was marshalled out of the House and other BJP legislators staged a walkout.