CS assault row: Plea in HC claims constitutional breakdown in Delhi

The Delhi High Court is likely to hear tomorrow a plea claiming that the constitutional scheme of governance in the national capital has collapsed after the alleged assault on the Chief Secretary at the Chief Minister's house. The petition, filed by Delhi-based 'Society for Abatement of Ill-governance', sought a declaration from the court that neither the chief minister, nor the ministers of Delhi can summon any government servant other than those appointed and posted with them on co-terminus basis, beyond normal working hours. The plea, filed through advocate K S Wahi, also sought to determine the culpability of the public servants in the issue. "Direct that each official agenda of every meeting with them (bureaucrats) must be circulated one day in advance to permit collection of relevant information and no meeting should held at a place where public has been called or is expected to collect and proceedings of every such meeting must be video recorded," the plea said. AAP MLAs Prakash Jarwal and Amanatullah Khan were arrested in connection with the alleged assault on Delhi Chief Secretary Anshu Prakash during a meeting at Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal's residence on the night of February 19. "It appears the key purpose of convening midnight meeting at the residence of Chief Minister, Delhi was to intimidate Anshu Prakash (chief secretary), and through him, other government servants, implying thereby that any government servant disobeying orders/ directions of the Council of Ministers or the party workers shall be brutalised by party workers," the plea alleged. While Jarwal, an MLA from Deoli, was arrested on February 20, Khan, an MLA from Okhla, was taken into custody the next day.

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