Delhi High Court notice vindicates our stand, say AAP MLAs

AAP MLA Saurabh Bhardwaj

AAP MLAs Saurabh Bhardwaj and Madan Lal, who head the Delhi Assembly committees on Petitions and Privileges, Saturday said “the Delhi High Court’s decision to issue a showcause notice to the PWD principal secretary was in line with fixing accountability of the executive”.

Adding that the “Assembly committees have been striving for this since many months,” the chairpersons said that the committees have been functioning according to the “powers vested in them by the Constitution of India and the Government of National Capital Territory of Delhi Act 1991”.

Addressing the media, they said the court decision to issue a showcause notice “proved that the accountability of delinquent officials was required to be fixed”. They added that the committee’s report in June had found that the officials had “lied about desilting of drains before the monsoon, and it has now been proved that the same officer had lied to court”.

The two also said that in some cases, members of various House committees had expressed displeasure over a division bench of the court granting stays to some officers without hearing views of the Assembly. However, Speaker Ram Niwas Goel was of the view that the “legislature and the judiciary need to respect each other, and the Assembly’s views will be placed before the court”.