Chief secy must appear before House panel: HC
NEWDELHI: The high court on Tuesday reiterated its earlier direction to the Delhi chief secretary (CS) Anshu Prakash to appear before the privileges committee stating that he was “adequately protected” from any punishment.
Clarifying his July 13 order, justice Vibhu Bhakru said Prakash has to appear before the privileges committee of the Delhi assembly and if any punishment is imposed on him, then it would not be implemented until the main petition challenging the summons of the committee is decided.
“The order (of July 13) is expressly clear that petitioner (Prakash) will participate in the proceedings without prejudice and if the committee recommends or imposes any punishment, the same will not be implemented till the final disposal of the petition.
“The court is of the view that the petitioner is adequately protected and no further clarification is required,” it said.
The court’s remarks came while disposing of an application filed by Prakash which had sought clarification of its July 13 order, asking him to appear before the panel which issued a notice to him on a complaint by the question and reference (Q&R) committee of the assembly.
On July 13, justice Bhakru ordered that Prakash “shall participate in the proceedings albeit without prejudice to all his rights and contentions”.
The chief secretary has been summoned by the petitions committee and the privileges committee of the assembly on July 26 and July 27, respectively.
In his plea filed on Tuesday, Prakash said one of the members of the privileges committee was biased against him.
Appearing for the chief secretary, senior advocate Siddharth Luthra claimed that a senior bureaucrat cannot be treated in such a manner as the chairperson of the committee was “biased” and “hostile” to Prakash.
However, the court said no prejudice was being caused to the CS as all proceedings are being videotaped.
Prakash and two others had been issued a notice by the assembly for skipping a meeting on February 20, a day after he was allegedly assaulted by two Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) MLAS after a late-night meeting at chief minister Arvind Kejriwal’s house.
The three bureaucrats — the other two are JB Singh, registrar of cooperative societies, and Shurbir Singh, chief executive officer of Delhi Urban Shelter Improvement Board — had moved the court seeking to quash the notice issued against them by the committee.
According to the privileges committee, the three were given several opportunities to appear before it but the bureaucrats did not join the proceedings.