BJP moves HC, seeks order on tabling of CAG reports

Seven members of legislative assembly (MLAs) from Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday approached the Delhi high court again and sought directions to the Delhi government to present 14 Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) reports in the court.

The matter was presented by senior advocate Jayant Mehta before a bench of acting chief justice Vibhu Bakhru and justice Tushar Rao Gedela. Mehta urged the court to list the matter urgently, contending that the government was yet to place the reports before the assembly, despite there being a petition previously on the issue.

To recall, the high court on December 16 had closed the plea by the same MLA’s who sought the reports by the CAG to be sent to LG VK Saxena for tabling before the Delhi legislative assembly. Their grievance stood redressed after Saxena’s lawyers told the court that all the CAG reports were sent to chief minister Atishi’s office with a direction to immediately convene a special sitting of Delhi Legislative Assembly for tabling the reports. The Delhi government’s counsel Sudhir Nandrajog had then submitted that the reports will be forwarded to speaker Ram Niwas Goel in two to three days.

During the hearing on Monday, the bench questioned the urgency in the matter, to which Mehta said that once an election is announced, the assembly session would not be called. The court assured him that the matter will be listed in “normal course.”

In their pleas, the seven leaders including leader of opposition (LoP) in the Delhi Legislative Vijender Gupta, Mohan Singh Bisht, Om Prakash Sharma, Ajay Kumar Mahawar, Abhay Verma, Anil Kumar Bajpai and Jitendra Mahajan, claimed that in spite of the order passed in the case earlier, the Speaker was yet to receive the reports.

The inaction on Delhi government’s part and withholding the reports despite the undertaking, the plea claimed, was “grossly illegal, violative of both constitutional and statutory directive and breach of public’s trust.”

“This is a clear violation of the statement/undertaking given by the senior counsel on behalf of the GNCTD before this Hon’ble Court,” the plea added. The legislators also sought directions to Goel to summon the house and table the reports before the legislative assembly.

Addressing the media after filing the petition, Gupta alleged that the AAP government is repeatedly avoiding presenting these reports in the Assembly to hide its corruption and malpractices. Gupta claimed that the manner in which the CAG reports have been suppressed, hidden, and not tabled in the assembly raises suspicions about the government and exposes its reality.

The Delhi government spokesperson did not respond to HT’s request for a comment on the matter.